Cuba takes actions to address severe food, medicine shortages

SANAA, Jul. 15 (YPA) – Cuba announced on Wednesday it was temporarily lifting restrictions on the amount of food and medicine travelers could bring into the country in an apparent small concession to demands by protesters who took to the street last weekend.

“This measure will take effect until December 31st,” Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said, according to Reuters.

The decision to facilitate the entry of necessities into the island came in response to a demand made by protesters who took to the streets after the suffocating economic crisis in their country caused a severe shortage of food and medicine and prompted the government to ration electricity for many hours a day.

A group of intellectuals and academics recently published an open letter calling on the authorities to take such action.

Cuba is experiencing the greatest rise in the number of daily infections in Corona, deaths and hospitalizations, amid the third wave of the epidemic and severe United States economic sanctions.

E.M