After reporting only 8,529 deaths due to Covid-19 between 2020 and today, and systematically seeking to cover up the major exodus from Cuba, the authorities' falsification of the reality on the island was exposed after the first reports of the Statistical Yearbook, containing figures from between January and December 2021, were released.
In the section of the document dedicated to Population, drafted by the State Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), it is striking that in the previous year 167,645 deaths were recorded, while the total population fell by 68,380.
Although the decrease in the number of inhabitants has been steady since 2015, mainly attributed to the low birth rate, the downward curve in 2021 was about 7% per 1,000 people.
In numbers, this means that while the country closed out 2020 with 11,181,595 people, at the end of 2021 there were 11,113,215.
These figures could be even more acute if we take into account that in November 2021 an exodus began that, through last May, had seen over 140,000 Cubans emigrate to the USA in what it qualifies as the largest migratory wave from the island in the last half century.
The average number of annual deaths in Cuba over the past five years was 106,813 people, remaining quite stable, with maximum variations of 7,540 cases between 2016 (99,401) and 2017 (106,941), while thereafter it grew by no more than 4,000 cases, such that a major increase in the annual figure could only be due to a health emergency such as the Covid-19 pandemic, which killed millions around the world in the last two years.
In 2021 there were just 99,096 births and, significantly, the numbers of deaths of children under one year of age also shot up, to 753, more than those reported in 2020, when there were 516.
In addition, the decline in births, which according to the Government is a cause for concern and constant attention, was almost 10% compared to 2020, when 109,716 people were born. This fall was the sharpest since 1970, something that is also true for the mortality rate, according to the study.
According to the Yearbook, children under the age of 15 now account for just 15.7% of the population, while 62.7% are aged between 15 and 59, and 21.6% over 59.
Coincidentally, without mentioning the recently published figures, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero posted on his Twitter profile a comment stating: "Demographic Dynamics are a matter of special interest to the Government of Cuba. At a meeting of the Government Commission created to address this issue, we analyzed several points that have a significant impact on it."
In the summer of 2021, when hospitals were overwhelmed and social media brimmed with complaints of overcrowded hospitals and morgues, as well as the sudden, rushed expansion of cemeteries, and burials in mass graves, the media and official spokespeople strove to deny these allegations, offering absurd explanations.
After a year, the truth has come to light, as well as the authorities' systematic distortion of the national reality. all to try, unsuccessfully, to hide its botched handling of the crisis.