Cuba began demanding from today on a negative PCR test for Covid-19 to travelers coming from abroad, carried out by a certified laboratory in the country of origin to curb an ascending trend of new cases.

According to official sources, this test must be done in a maximum period of 72 hours before the arrival to national territory.

Upon arrival, individuals must present a certificate to the International Health Control authorities stating that they are ‘negative for Covid-19’.

Also, all tourists interested in staying in hotels, rental houses or cheap hotels will have a PCR done at the place they will stay and will remain in isolation until they have the negative result of that test, according to the site of the Public Health Ministry.

Meanwhile, travelers residing in Cuba or visitors going to the community will be confined to a house until they find out the negative result of a second PCR carried out on the fifth day of their arrival.

The PCR requirement for entry responds to the new outbreak in the island of those diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, many of them with a source of infection abroad or associated with them, after the opening of the airports between last October and mid-November.

With 2,332 positive cases and an accumulated total of 14,188, Cuba is now experiencing its third outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and a complex epidemiological situation after logging two consecutive daily records on Thursday and Friday last of 344 and 365 new positive cases.