by Yosley Carrero
HAVANA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The number of active COVID-19 cases in Cuba continued to decline to the lowest level in nearly a year, reaching 358 as of Sunday, the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) said.
Among the active cases, 16 are in intensive care units across the country, MINSAP said.
The Caribbean nation reported 62 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, taking the national tally to 964,097, it said, adding that no coronavirus-related deaths were registered in the past day, leaving the national death toll at 8,324.
Cuba has so far reported five cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Health officials continued to urge people to follow COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
Sports facilities, leisure centers, theme parks and beaches in Cuba are open with mask mandates, whereas restaurants and cafeterias are operating under social distancing guidelines.
According to MINSAP, the eastern Cuban province of Holguin has recorded the majority of new cases in the Caribbean nation in the past week.
Health authorities have also evaluated the hospitalization of all symptomatic COVID-19 cases in the country's capital of Havana ahead of the Christmas break, when thousands of Cuban nationals from overseas are expected to return to the island.
Travelers flying into Cuba from South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique are now required to show vaccination certificates and negative results of COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests taken within 72 hours of arrival. They are also required to take PCR tests on arrival and on the sixth day of their visits, and to stay in quarantine hotels for a week at their own expense.
Cuba has so far administered slightly more than 29.1 million doses of home-grown vaccines as part of a nationwide COVID-19 immunization drive.
Official data showed that over 10.2 million Cuban nationals have received at least one dose of the domestic vaccines, and about 84 percent of the country's 11.2 million inhabitants have been fully vaccinated.
Over 746,000 people in Cuba, including frontline workers and the immunocompromised, have received a booster. Enditem
