State media has shown rare images of patients in beds in corridors and doctors complaining of a lack of oxygen, ventilators and medicines. Demonstrators also protested shortages of food and medicines and curbs on civil liberties. Rodriguez said the exacerbation of food and medicine shortages over the past year due to the pandemic-related economic crisis had already broken Cuba's social pact. "You go out onto the street to buy food and someone says to you: do you know who else died?" said Libia Ortega, 44, a worker in a private cafeteria in Matanzas city closed due to the pandemic and shortages of products.

Source: bd News24 July 19, 2021 10:18 UTC