Cuba has authorized the resumption of international operations to 10 airports, after fulfilling the biosecurity protocols established for the management of flights with other countries without risk of COVID-19 contagion. The certification was carried out by specialists from the ministries of Public Health, Tourism and Transport; from the Institute of Civil Aviation of Cuba (IACC) and from the Cuban Aviation Corporation (CACSA).
Although the agency has not specified the certified airports, the economic weekly advances five: Frank País (Holguín), Sierra Maestra (Manzanillo), Abel Santamaría (Santa Clara), Jardines del Rey (Cayo Coco), and Vilo Acuña, from Cayo Largo del Sur.
In the ten facilities, the experts carried out a rigorous inspection of all their areas, assessing the conditions that guarantee the fulfillment of the measures established in the matter of prevention and control of possible COVID-19’s infections, such as measuring the temperature of travelers at their arrival and departure; physical distance and hand disinfection; according to a information of the Cuban economic and financial weekly magazine Options, quoted by the Cuban News Agency (ACN).
Reforms and adaptation
The information indicates that the terminals were also subjected to certain reforms to adapt them to the health standards required for the detection of COVID-19. At the same time, its workers have been trained to carry out the various measures for health control of passengers, while ensuring their own safety.
The inspectors “verified the existence of sanitary guidelines in the rooms of the facilities, as well as the mastery by the workers of the procedures and measures contemplated in the biosecurity protocols at the country’s borders,” says the ACN.
Conditions have also been created to ensure social distance in all premises, frequent hygienization of the different areas and external disinfection of the luggage of passengers arriving at each airport.
It seems that the selection of the airports has been made in order to facilitate the arrival of foreign tourists with destination to hotels and spas, the tourist poles of Villa Clara and Ciego de Ávila, and the Special Municipality Isle of Youth, among others, will be opened with a group of sanitary measures included in the second and third phases of the Cuban de-escalation post-COVID-19.
Cuba maintains suspended the commercial and charter flights, except for those that transport collaborators, cargo, donations and emergency teams, allowing the entrance only of residents, with the condition of fulfilling an obligatory quarantine of 14 days in centers enabled for that purpose.
The Cuban government has authorized the reopening of ten airports in the country, with international operations, after certifying that they comply with health security measures. This means that the airports are ready to receive foreign tourists. According to the Cubanet newspaper, the arrival of the first foreigners by havana airport taxi to the island, after the worldwide tourist strike caused by the Covid, took place last August 1st, through the Jardines del Rey International Airport (Cayo Coco).
As the weekly magazine Opciones reports, a national commission made up of experts from the Ministries of Public Health, Tourism and Transport, as well as from the Institute of Civil Aviation of Cuba (IACC) and the Cuban Aviation Corporation (Cacsa) was in charge of inspecting the different facilities of these ten aerodromes.
Some of the measures that were analyzed were taking the passengers’ temperature (both those who arrive and those who leave), as well as the security distance and hand hygiene. Thus, they checked the indications on these measures and the mastery of airport employees of the procedures and protocols, among others.
For the time being, the list of authorized airports has not been detailed, although everything points to the fact that the next five will appear in it, since they have carried out rehabilitation works and improvements to implement the measures to contain the coronavirus:
Abel de Santamaría International Airport, in the city of Santa Clara
Jardines del Rey International Airport, in Cayo Coco
Vilo Acuña International Airport, in Cayo Largo del Sur
Frank País International Airport, in Holguín
Sierra Maestra International Airport, in Manzanillo