Although the number of visitors is much lower than before the pandemic, the Varadero Beach resort still attracts tourists thanks to its natural charm and safety standards, a goal supported by an army of employees better protected against the SARS CoV-2 coronavirus.
Over 8,300 workers in the sector received the three doses of the then vaccine candidate Abdala, now a full-fledged, 92.28% effective vaccine, according to Alexis Medel Aviles Medel, director of the Cuban medical services branch in the province of Matanzas.
“Most of those working in the Hicacos Peninsula, Cuba’s main sun and beach resort located some 120 kilometers east of Havana, were able to complete the vaccination program with the Cuban immunogen, and no serious adverse reactions were reported among them,” he stressed.
Only 493 people were excluded from the third-dose program for different reasons: some were positive to COVID-19, others were in isolation centers at the time, and still others were allergic to thimerosal, a compound present in Abdala’s formulation. However, they will be immunized, taking into account a recent announcement about a version of the vaccine without this substance to be produced soon.
Anecdotes abound among those who received the last and decisive shot, all confident that Cuban science can provide solutions to all problems, be they natural, such as the pandemic, or human-made, such as the genocidal U.S. blockade.
Dunia Herrera Alfonso, a waitress at the Royalton Hicacos Hotel, holds to be grateful for and optimistic about the vaccine, as it protects both her and her family. Others like the tour guide Ernesto Rosabal Guerra, are looking forward to going back to work in the longed-for new normal and answering the questions of foreign guests about the Caribbean Island that, despite every hardship, makes anti-COVID-19 vaccines and offers them free of charge to its people.
More than 5,000 employees who work directly with tourists were immunized in Varadero Beach, as well as more than 2,000 indirect workers, according to Dr. Medel Avilés.
As efforts and gestures of solidarity multiply to overcome the worst outbreak yet of the epidemic in Cuba, with its current epicenter in the province of Matanzas, Varadero Beach and its qualified labor force become more important than ever to contribute to the country’s economic recovery.
