• Live: last minute of the coronavirus
  • Cuba.Closes its doors to tourists and imposes "isolation centers" for newly arrived Cubans
  • Outdoors More than 18,000 Spaniards trapped abroad by the coronavirus managed to return in the last two weeks

The last flight to Spain before Cuba closes its air traffic is ready to depart early Wednesday from Havana . Hundreds of Spaniards remain on the island without more opportunities to return to their country directly.

"At times we thought we would stay here until May," said Pablo , a 30-year-old computer scientist who will return to his home in Madrid after having been confined in a hotel for the last week of his vacation, in compliance with the isolation regulations decreed. by the Cuban authorities against the coronavirus pandemic.

For José , a 65-year-old retiree who also did tourism in Cuba, the last few days have not been easy either: "It has cost us a bit of indefiniteness not to give us a specific date of return, but then we have contacted the Embassy and it has made it easier for us to leave ", he explained at the José Martí International Airport .

Operated by an Airbus 330/300 with capacity for 280 passengers, the IB6620 flight to Madrid will depart full and will be the last direct flight between Cuba and Spain, only 48 hours after the Caribbean country applies its latest drastic measure against the coronavirus : close airspace.

The Cuban government announced on Tuesday the suspension of commercial and charter flights to the island and called for the withdrawal of foreign vessels from its territorial waters to stop the spread of the virus, which on the island has caused six deaths.

The other Spanish companies with direct regular connections between the two countries stopped operating days ago due to the pandemic and will not do so at least until the end of April, in the case of Evelop and until May, in the case of Air Europa . According to the Cuban authorities, until now some 900 Spaniards with a tourist visa were still on the island.

To return to Spain they have the option of looking for seats on a stopover route on any of the few scheduled flights to third destinations in the next 48 hours, until air traffic closes, or wait an indefinite time for the normalization of the situation.

Tourists who still remain in Cuba cannot leave their hotels or rented private homes until they leave the country, and gyms and swimming pools are also closed in both types of accommodation.

Cuba, which until now has not decreed mandatory confinement although it has closed schools and canceled public events, adds to date 186 cases of coronavirus , six died from Covid-19 and keeps 2,837 people isolated in sanitary facilities, while another 27,139 are under preventive surveillance in their homes, according to official data.

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