The new contact of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba, Manuel Marrero Cruz, with the main political and administrative authorities of Ciego de Ávila and its ten municipalities, in the presence of senior leaders, representatives of ministries and specialists from sectors such as Health, at the country level, leaves no more room for the territory to just begin to reverse the very complicated situation in which it has once again plunged, from the epidemiological point of view.

“We need solutions and we need results.  The people are crying out for it.  The people are our children, they are our wives, our parents and ourselves, who are not always acting accordingly with the trust placed in them”. Marrero Cruz said with his usual serenity, in a kind of implicit invitation to self-analysis from an individual point of view around the shortcomings that weigh down the confrontation with COVID-19 and that, unfortunately, continue to be repeated.

Minutes earlier, reports presented by Tomás Alexis Martín Venegas, Governor of Ciego de Ávila and Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca, Deputy Prime Minister - whose presence in the province is precisely due to the will of the highest Cuban leadership to resolve the difficulties - had again revealed deficiencies. Some of them include faults in compliance with protocols, delay in the admission of suspects and confirmed ones, violation of social isolation measures, persistence of high mobility, organizational problems in hospitals, insufficient control over isolation centers, high number of clinics without medical personnel (more than a hundred), not taking advantage of community work and slowness in obituary services, among others.

After asking himself, in a reflective tone, what new aspect has been said that has not been mentioned or analyzed before, the Cuban Prime Minister reiterated with total clarity three ideas: “We have no doubt about how hard it has been worked... Time is running out to continue making mistakes, at least with the same mistakes... and this situation has to be changed and resolved by you, not just Tapia and a group of comrades brought from Havana, because who most need to recognize the people are you, those citizens elected or appointed here”.

It is real that this is very possible; Marrero Cruz would take into account the reflection of Tapia Fonseca about how most of the cadres present there had done things well in previous moments. On the other hand, the experience from Matanzas, as it is also demonstrating in very complicated conditions the certainty of what was expressed by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz: Yes, it could, it can, and it will.

He then thanked acts of sincerity such as those offered by the young Roberto León García, when informing or answering questions, he admired the virtues "of the noble people" and emphasized that, no matter how tense the panorama may be, under no circumstances can there be any room for discouragement or to lose enthusiasm and confidence.

The exchange once again confirmed the real priority that, with human and material resources, as far as possible, the country continues to offer Ciego de Ávila and other territories, even in the midst of the nation's tense economic situation. At the same time, it was confirmed what everyone with a minimum of information and good sense knows: unlike other places, in Cuba a grave will never be opened to give common burial to victims of the pandemic.

Before concluding the meeting attended by Carlos Luis Garrido Pérez, member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and its first secretary in the province; Lilian González Rodríguez, second head of the Office for Attention to Local Administrations of the Council of Ministers and the Cuban heads of Health, Transportation and Tourism, the Prime Minister emphasized:

“We do not come here to criticize.  What is clear is that we did not come to be part of the problem, but rather to be part of the solution to that problem."

This Wednesday, the confirmation of 12,327 people infected with the deadly virus in the last 15 days, more than 700 control of outbreaks, 14 patients in critical condition, 63 seriously ill and an accumulated total of 353 deaths, are some of the statistics and the realities that gravitate directly on the population. Moreover, this entire situation revels how much time has been lost, that we cannot waste one more minute or commit another mistake.