The inescapable glimpses of the sun are waning in the city of Las Tunas. The sky becomes an amalgam of reddish flashes, although very few people turn upwards. A few hours before, the city expelled a burning breath, but now a fresh breeze is brewing and neighborhoods begin to awaken… The “luck” of the periphery masks the real danger of the COVID-19, and the afternoon falls, like any other …

Las Tunas, Cuba.- In the Argüelles area, the silence is broken. The players approach. Immediately two teams are formulated and the basketball area is animated with disputes and the colloquial and non-formal language. Two of the young men carry their mask well tied, defying the jumps and pirouettes, the rest show them at neck height, like bibs.

One street further the sports environment remains unscathed. Youth and children entertain themselves with a baseball game in the street, a small commission of gossip, made up of more young infants, watches them with equal enthusiasm. No one rebukes them, although in the news the sad death of several people is repeated.

"Cumin, pepper, seasoning ...". At the voice of a spice vendor, some women gather around him, a couple of them did not have time to cover their noses and mouths, they still touch the products and debate their quality. Spread the word and the clientele doubles.

A few blocks further in, the row betrays the offer of the butcher shop. Finally, the 20.00-pound chicken arrives at the Fernando Betancourt neighborhood. I hear that several neighbors spent three days queuing from 5:00 am. The unit staff takes care of the separation between the settlers.

The environment is very heterogeneous. A lady over 65 years old talks animatedly with another. She takes a bar (perhaps a milk candy) out of her nylon bag, lowers her mask and starts the tasting while she waits for her turn to approach the counter. She reaches out and shares with another fellow the candy. They eat and smile. A feminine voice is heard inviting coffee from afar. There is much uncertainty among those present. I hear countless comments about the food shortage, the lack of rice and food that make it almost impossible to put together a menu that seriously involves the digestive system. A woman predicts "hunger is worse than coronavirus."

ALERTS, QUIET OR CAREFUL?

"In the neighborhoods, there is a lack of perception of risk, because people know that they will not be fined if they do not bring their mouths covered, that nobody is going to come and check whether or not there are people on the street. Right now I just saw three youngsters walking around with bicycle parts in hand, perhaps looking for a mechanic and one doesn't even bring protection.

That happens because no one is in charge of enforcing the laws in the communities, they stay in the center of the city, ”says a neighbor who suggests that she exclude her name “because she could be misinterpreted”.

Leydis Gallardo, near Bonachea Market, says that although the outlook is not yet perfect, the population has taken on more responsibility. "Where I live, things have changed," she says, "before there were children playing in the street, but little by little that has been eradicated, I feel more responsibility."

Luisito Báez points out that what most threatens social isolation are queues for food. “Look, measures are taken, but much remains to be done. In the butchers, they continue making concentrations because they do not sell by the number of the regulated card of basic supplies and that favors the trickle. I consider there is no responsibility. I have heard some say that this virus is cleaning, that only the old and the sick are dying, hey, what a lack of sensitivity."

Jorge Pedro González in Buena Vista tells that in the neighborhood the residents go out to “solve” the problems without the mask and the rhythm is the same as always as if there was no danger.

Laynet Pompa shares with 26Digital that in the historic center is where more people can be seen, in endless queues at the doors of shops or making arrangements.
“Certainly, at night the central avenue looks lonely, but by day life goes on, and people have to go out and buy what they need; it is a risk, but also a necessity."

"PEOPLE DO NOT WANT TO UNDERSTAND ..."

The objectivity of the future galena Yessica Melvys Calderón warns that unfortunately there is not yet a proper perception of risk that implies a disease as contagious as COVID-19.

"There is a lack of citizen responsibility to achieve social isolation," says the sixth-year medical student, "which at the moment is the necessary conduct to prevent the spread of the epidemic in Cuba. I continue to see many people on the streets, patients who come to the hospital without criteria to do so, who even come to ask for prescriptions.

"In the neighborhood, people continue to make visits and are not aware that the epidemiological situation in the province has remained stable, but that we are not exempt from the disease, that hygiene and sanitary measures cannot be neglected."

From the municipality of Manatí, colleague Arian Laverdeza Reyes shares his concern about similar scenarios that are developing in his town. He tells me that the queues in the currency collection stores are conducive to high concentrations, that the residents do not want to understand ... and do not behave with the care they should, that there are even those who arrive at the park in the early hours of the morning and return to their house late afternoon.

Unfortunately, a good part of the Las Tunas population, right now, does not give COVID-19 the importance it deserves. Motivated by need or not, they are still on the streets. Even those who ask for more stringent restrictive measures in front of the 26Digital microphones do not severely comply with the principles of social isolation.

The unconscious people are scattered throughout the province, but the criteria point to the fact that within many neighborhoods at this point the established laws are still not being complied with, and therefore a greater presence of the authorities and a better functioning of the organizations of mass.
…

The afternoon ends in my piece of the periphery. Now it is grayer and there is less red in the sky. I have the commitment to transcribe the opinions stuck in my microphone, but the phrase of a lady in the chicken's queue still lingers somewhere in my memory: “Let´s have confidence in the doctors or the Government, but do not turn into unconscious people, because we will never beat the coronavirus ”. What a mix of attitudes in the same place! And how wise our people can be sometimes!