Cuba surpasses 4,000 total deaths from COVID-19

HAVANA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cuba on Sunday surpassed 4,000 total deaths from COVID-19, the Ministry of Public Health reported.

A elderly woman gets her temperature checked before being inoculated against COVID-19 with Cuban vaccine Abdala in Havana, on August 2, 2021. (File photo: AFP)

The Caribbean nation registered 8,636 new cases and 98 more deaths in the last 24 hours, for a total of 517,668 infections and 4,023 deaths.

Transmission rates will slow as the vaccination program progresses and the protocols to deal with the virus are reinforced, said Francisco Duran, director of hygiene and epidemiology of the health ministry.

Havana, the country's main population center with more than 2 million inhabitants, reported 1,071 new cases, followed by the province of Cienfuegos (992).