[2] On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.
Health professionals are facing challenges including shortages of medical supplies, poor sanitary conditions, and low wages.
As a consequence, the government began increasing centralization of the economy in an effort to prevent a deeper economic crisis like the one experienced by the country after the end of the Cold War.
Cuba sent medical personnel to the hardest-hit Italian wealthy region of Lombardy,[6] as well as Angola and a dozen Caribbean states including Suriname.
Cuba engaged effective COVID-19 preventive measures, and despite the concurrent economic crisis and shortages of consumer products, in July 2020 officials reported that during the first wave of the pandemic the country's population suffered only minimal losses.
Regular testing, wearing of face masks, and health visits by nursing professionals kept the reported case loads and mortality rates lower than in most countries of the Americas.
[citation needed] The island is suffering from an acute shortage of consumer goods and medical supplies during a severe economic downturn.
People were advised to carry several cloth face masks with them, depending on how many hours they plan to spend in public areas.
[10] On 16 March, the cruise ship MS Braemar, with over 1,000 passengers and crew on board, was given permission to berth in Cuba after being rejected by the Bahamas.
[17] On 22 March, the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) of Cuba raised the number of coronavirus infections on the island to 35 but were monitoring more than 950 suspected cases, according to information published by the state agency on its website.
[27] On June 18, 2020, the Cuban government started to set out a reopening plan with all the provinces, except Havana and Matanzas, being put in a first phase of recovery.
Provinces in phase 1 would be able to reopen restaurants, bars, gyms, swimming pools, and beaches with capacity limits and social distancing measures being put in place.
[36] In spite of their relatively slow development process, Cuba aims to manufacture 100 million doses of Soberana 02 in 2021 to cover its population and to export the surplus.
[38][32][39] In July 2021, representatives of the humanitarian organisation Global Health Partners announced the successful donation of six million syringes to Cuba for their COVID-19 vaccination campaign.