Cuba reopens Havana airport after 8-month virus closure
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Havana’s airport will resume commercial flights from Sunday, nearly eight months after authorities shut Cuba’s main international gateway to shield the island nation from the coronavirus pandemic.
This year’s global public health crisis has dealt a tough blow to the communist country’s sclerotic economy, which was already struggling with fresh US sanctions and declining tourism revenues.
Foreign arrivals will be subject to a temperature check and PCR diagnostic test on arrival and will not be allowed to move freely until the results of the test around 24 hours later, according to a report on official news portal Cubadebate.
Travellers will also be required to take a second PCR test five days later and pay an unspecified “health tax” to cover the cost of the test protocols, the report said.
Cuba appears to have largely kept a lid on local coronavirus cases, with just 7,392 cases and 130 deaths since the pandemic began.
