I have never wanted so badly for a year to end, but I think this wish is shared with many; because the leap year overdose of 2020 exceeds the number of misfortunes and disasters that people remember.
Taking a walk down memory lane since January, a series of negative events have brought sadness and concerns to Cuban families; and the women of Camagüey do not escape the bad omen.
Traffic accidents, economic shortages in products as basic as food and personal hygiene, collapses and floods of houses, plagues in crops and endless lines for any product for sale and then fear, fear of dying or seeing someone in your family getting sick or dying.
The pandemic
Yes, the arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 in the country disrupted work, family and community routines. Since March 11th, the first case was diagnosed in Cuba and we began to prepare ourselves to avoid something unknown, tiny and deadly.
On April 7th, World Health Day, the situation worsened; the municipal radio station closed and quarantine measures increased in jobs and public centers. The number of patients increased, while 180 countries had already reported cases.
The National Civil Defense Staff issued Informative Note number 1, on the measures to be adopted to comply with the quarantine against COVID-19 in Cuba.
The quarantine measure includes the strict limitation and prohibition of the movement of the population to and from the areas affected by the disease, and other sanitary measures, where the permanent use of masks and the washing of hands with soap and chlorine came to stay, at least for a long time.
An outbreak of the pandemic in recent months has marked the sequence of the disease in Cuba, Camagüey, which since June has no longer reported cases, is still counting three or four a week.
Hands and hearts together in this battle for life have achieved that the numbers of patients in Cuba are lower than many countries in the world, and the help of Cuban doctors has been present in several continents. Doctors from Camagüey were also part of the Henry Rive contingent, the one who saves lives all around the world.
Personalities
The fatalities of this leap year include the departure of beloved personalities of Cuban culture, including Cuban star Rosita Fornés, Prima Ballerina Alicia Alonso, cartoon filmmaker Frank Padrón, and our beloved Havana historian Eusebio Leal Spengler.
Social distance has prevented us to pay honor and say the farewells that each one of them deserved, but the people’s displays of affection and respect have not been lacking, from social networks and other creative ways of saying goodbye.
What’s New
If we learned something this year, it was to survive with the essential and even less, to give priority to health and attachments, to enjoy each piece of work, the company of our colleagues, family and friends as if it were the last, because before so many limitations; even in physical displays of affection, affection is not limited.
2020 is finally over, may all its bad vibes remain as a bad memory and may the new calendar bring us health, peace and prosperity, a coronavirus vaccine and may the masks soon become a museum piece.
This is my greatest wish and that of many people from Camagüey, that today at 12.00 o’clock, we will be celebrating a new anniversary of freedom and conquests, sure that this battle against the SARS-CoV-2, like so many others, we will win it!
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
