Cuba will impose quarantine on tourists from 8 African countries for Omicron variant

Cuba announced Monday that it will impose a quarantine week and other health measures for travelers from eight African countries, after the onset of the Omicron variant detected for the first time in South Africa, reported the Ministry of Health.

As of December 4, travelers from South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Malawi and Eswatini (or Swaziland) must also present, upon arrival on the island, the complete vaccination schedule and a negative result of PCR performed 72 hours before.

“Compulsory quarantine will be applied to them for seven days in a hotel destined for this purpose, with the traveler assuming the costs of accommodation and transportation,” the ministry said in an informative note on its website.

Tourists from these countries will also have to undergo a PCR test upon arrival in Cuba and another on the sixth day of quarantine, and if negative, they will be able to leave on the seventh day.

With the exception of the quarantine and PCR on the sixth day, the authorities will also apply the rest of these measures to travelers from Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong, Egypt, Turkey and the rest of the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Cuba, with 11.2 million inhabitants, managed to control the pandemic with 9 million 194,017 people with the complete vaccination scheme, which in Cuba is three doses, with immunizers of national development and production.

After registering in July, August and September the worst moment in the incidence of the coronavirus, the island managed to reduce the number of cases steadily from October, even without registering deaths in recent days.

Since the first cases were presented in March 2020, Cuba has reached 962,350 infections and 8,300 deaths from coronavirus.

Just last November 15, the students finished returning to the classrooms and the borders were reopened to international tourism, restricted since the beginning of the year.

At the beginning of this month, the quarantine imposed on all people entering the country was also eliminated, in addition to the night curfew and the closure of restaurants and public places.

The new variant is a “very high risk” worldwide, had warned the World Health Organization (WHO).