More severe restrictions on public passenger transport have been in effect in the province since this week, in line with the social distancing measures indicated by the authorities to curb the spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- Regardless of the distance, the authorities decreed the obligatory use of the protective mask for drivers and passengers on public transport.
The Provincial Transport Directorate decided to reduce to 50 percent the cars for public service that circulate in Las Tunas. Likewise, measures are implemented to minimize those that provide inter-municipal service.
Luis Enrique Arias Peña, director of the Provincial Company for the Transport of Passengers and General Cargo (Cardinal), stressed that the call is to stay at home as much as possible and to reduce unnecessary trips due to the presence of COVID-19 in Cuba.
The manager explained that the morning hours are prioritized in these changes, which will be the least affected to avoid the crowding of people who keep working at the bus stops.
And he said that, with less circulation, all the massive passenger transportation points in this city continue to operate; of course, with the security measures that inspectors, drivers and passengers require.
Regarding travels to and from the municipalities, he recognized the priority of the Health and Agriculture sectors, where the bulk of the citizens who move daily in Las Tunas to work outside their municipalities are concentrated.
"The people have to assume that we do not have inter-municipal service; it is only for people who go to work. The Provincial Directorate of Labor and Social Security in the territory has already carried out a survey of those who move daily from one municipality to another for these reasons. We know that some are essential in the tasks they perform, those cases will be protected.
“The Guillermo Domínguez Hospital, in Puerto Padre, for example, receives many workers from the municipality of “Jesús Menéndez.” We are orienting cars for the transfer of these workers. Always leaving in the morning and returning in the afternoon.
"For its part, the Defense Council of Puerto Padre reordered the service for those who live there and work in this city of Las Tunas; most of them, by the way, in the Ernesto Guevara hospital. This is what all the municipal defense councils have been doing.
"We have the most complicated case in Majibacoa. It is an atypical municipality and around 197 residents work in the capital city, almost all of them in the Health sector. They will have prioritized treatment, but also with certain restrictions."
The director of Cardinal also reported that at the headquarters of that entity in the city of Las Tunas, between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon, they attend to people who manifest an urgent need to travel to other cities of the country after the suspension of inter-provincial transport. To those who attend, he specified, their data will be taken so that in the course of the day they can be informed if their request has been accepted or not. The manager insisted that only those who demonstrate that their situation warrants will be able to travel.
Arias Peña stressed that the measures are aimed at maintaining the vitality of the economy and avoiding unnecessary mobility of people. His final message was: "These are times of social isolation and, if possible, we must stay home."
