COVID-19, Havana, spatial vulnerability, health geography, urban planning, Cuba healthcare system, public health, pandemic management
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Abstract
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Abstract
This thesis examines the differences in COVID-19 vulnerability among Havana's spatial sub-systems, considering lifestyles, spatial practices, and health measures.
Extract
[...] During the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020, the island was able to adopt an effective management of the pandemic due to the experience of its Ministry of Public Health, as an expert and international support in health crises. However, the COVID-19 Atlas in Havana and the report 'Typology of census districts and health areas: a first approach to the heterogeneities of COVID-19 distribution in Havana (Cuba)' published as early as 2022, highlights unexpected spatial differences in vulnerability to COVID-19, with a significant prevalence of cases within Havana. [...]
[...] The objective being to understand how lifestyles, spatial practices, and variations in the application of health measures can contribute to the differences in vulnerability to COVID-19, among contrasting spatial sub-systems of the city of Havana. Following a study combining a mixed material associating epidemiological data from the COVID-19 Atlas published since 2022 by the Cuban government and its Ministry of Health, a non-participatory field observation conducted in 2024 in 5 municipios and data from health questionnaires answered by residents of Havana from various municipios, This report shows that depending on the selected sub-spaces within the city, people's behaviors vary, directly affecting the application of health measures as well as the residents' vulnerabilities to the Covid-19 pandemic. [...]
