Laboratorio Molecular

Havana, May 20 (RHC) --Cuba has spent more than 300 million dollars to confront Covid-19 with investments to acquire PCR tests and molecular biology laboratories, Economic Minister Alejandro Gil said Thursday.

In a press conference, Gil explained that this amount does not include other expenses such as isolation centers and transportation of suspected, positive, and convalescent cases.  The official told the national and foreign press that these first four months of the year are marked by the intense confrontation to the rebound of the Covid-19, with its implication in the economy.

The pandemic has impacts that can be calculated because they are disbursements. Still, there are other indirect spills that cannot be appreciated with exactitude and that are greater', he affirmed.

Briefing on the behavior of the national economy so far in 2021, Gil mentioned the effects on the productive system, the closing of activities in the non-state sector (housing leasing, restaurants, and bars) with a marked emphasis on some tourist poles and their negative results for families and the economy.

He also mentioned that damages in the state's productive activity had been reported, due to the shutting down of factories and construction programs.

In addition, amid this situation, the country faces a shortage of medicines associated with the priority given to the fight against the pandemic, he said.

The Minister of Economic praised Cuban science's results with its vaccine candidates against Covid-19, in the midst of the tightening of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by Washington and the scarcity and limitations of resources caused by the pandemic.

In his appearance, he announced that the National Statistics and Information Office calculates the impact of the pandemic in the country because the indirect effects are greater than the direct costs, he stressed.