HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 12 (ACN) Almost 200 million dollars have been allocated by Cuba to face the COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic, in a context where income has decreased due to the tightening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States, said Alejandro Gil Fernandez, deputy prime minister and head of Economy and Planning.
During a televised appearance from the Palace of the Revolution, the minister said that only in reagents, medical equipment, means of production, expendable material and medicines (mainly imported) in 2020 the country invested 102 million dollars not foreseen in the national budget, and up to the end of June of this year, another 82 million dollars.
He said that the attention to suspects and positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 virus is offered totally free of charge to the population, but the average daily cost of keeping a person in an isolation center is 990 Cuban pesos (CUP), a confirmed patient in a hospital institution averages 4,165 CUP, and one in ICU requires an estimated 13,045 CUP each day.
These expenses are related to food, clothing, cleanliness, cleaning, electricity, water and other supplies for which no Cuban pays a bill.
Likewise, the State used up to the end of June 2021 5,772 million pesos in other items associated with the COVID-19 confrontation.
So far this year, he pointed out, the salary guarantees for the interrupted workers have cost the country 596 million CUP and a similar amount has gone to the salaries of those who have attended to the sick and contacts in the different areas.
In addition, Gil Fernandez noted that medicines have been purchased for use in these facilities for a value of 1,181 million pesos, more than 246 million in food and another 107 million in necessary raw materials, as well as expenses of 1,600 million in water, electricity and other supplies.
He explained that in 2020 Cuba earned in convertible foreign currency 2.413 billion dollars less than what was obtained in 2019, a decrease caused by the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States, and the affectations derived from the world sanitary emergency.
Regarding the stores in freely convertible currency, he added that they have not been able to fulfill all their objectives due to financial restrictions, which have limited the use of the cash collected.
The minister detailed that this year the nation has obtained 481 million dollars less compared to the first semester of 2020, and to this must be added the expenditure of 655 million dollars for the import of basic foodstuffs and the maintenance of the standard family basket of goods.
The official added that in terms of thermal generation (using national crude oil) to support the National Electro-energy System, as a result of failures in those facilities, 422 gigawatt-hours (gWH) less than expected have been generated. Compensating this generation with diesel generators, he continued, is more expensive, and 297 gWH more have been obtained in this way to reduce blackouts.
Some 207,000 tons of diesel have been imported to support this process in 2021 and the value of this resource is around US$ 25 million for 30,000 tons.
Gil Fernandez insisted that the priority continues to be the confrontation of the pandemic, and for this purpose, the country’s leadership decides, penny by penny, where to put the resources for the welfare of the population and the protection of the most vulnerable.
