As of Wednesday, the limitation of the transport service by state and private vehicles to and from the capital of the eastern Las Tunas province became effective, as part of the provisions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- This was confirmed by representatives of the Government here through its official website and executives of the Passenger Transport and General Cargo Company (CARDINAL).

At the moment, the incidence rate of autochthonous positive cases to SARS-CoV-2 per 100 thousand inhabitants of the municipality of Las Tunas is twice higher than that of the province as a whole. This territory also concentrates the overwhelming majority of the active transmission foci, and it fell back to phase three of the post-COVID-19 recovery period since the middle of last month.

Both sources clarified that the suspended public transport routes are those that have the city of Las Tunas as their origin and destination; as well as the rural routes of other municipalities that reach this territory. "That is the case, for example, of those that come from Ojo de Agua, Las Parras and Omaja," Luis Enrique Arias Peña, head of CARDINAL, said.

For its part, Panorama Tunero, the web portal of the provincial government, clarified that the state or private transport services between municipalities and settlements that have links to each other will continue to function as up to now, but those that do not have to transit through the capital. In this city, internal public services will be maintained, including the routes to rural communities such as Mastrapa, Bartle, Río Blanco, Dormitorio, and Las Flores.

This step obviously requires additional actions that guarantee the transfer of Public Health workers and other key sectors for the economy and services who reside in different municipalities; as well as those people who for fully justified reasons need to travel from or to towards the City of Open Doors.

At the beginning of this week, the Temporary Government Work Group for the confrontation and prevention of the new coronavirus anticipated that more severe epidemiological control measures would be taken in the municipality of Las Tunas. The limitation of transport would be just the first of others to be announced in the coming days.