Cuban dons full-body cardboard shield against coronavirus
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[July 14, 2020]
HAVANA (Reuters) - Ever since the
novel coronavirus reached Cuba, a tall cardboard box with arms and legs
can be seen tottering around a Havana suburb, popping into the bakery or
butchers, or browsing the newspaper stand.
This is Feridia Rojas, 82, who decided to build and wear mobile housing
to shield herself from the virus that is particularly deadly to seniors
in a country where personal protective equipment is not sold at stores.
"I am at home, what about you?" reads a message on her box, in a witty
nod to Cuba's coronavirus slogan "Stay at home."
The widower, whose daughters both live in the United States, said that
with no one to run her errands she had to find a way to do so safely by
herself, illustrating the resourcefulness and humor for which Cubans are
renowned.
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"I was worried about the asymptomatic cases who could cough just as I
passed," she said. "So I thought: I'll do a little house with a
cardboard box and wear it."
The retired Cuban nurse salvaged the box from the pharmacy in her
Palatino neighborhood and cut arm holes and a window for her face that
she covered in clear plastic.
On top, she glued cake boxes to make it look more like a house with a
roof than a flat-topped apartment building.
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![](../images/071420PICS/news_k21.jpg)
Retired nurse Feridia Rojas, 82, wears cardboard shaped into a house
at a market to protect herself from the spread of the coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Havana, Cuba, June 11, 2020. Picture
taken on June 11, 2020. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
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"She's very creative," chuckled her neighbor Zayda Echemendia,
adding that Rojas still helped locals with injections at home and
the like.
While her mobile home may be less necessary as Cuba's outbreak
appears to have come under control, Rojas said it still provided
necessary comic relief.
"In the midst of this pandemic, this stress and anxiety all the
time, my little home makes people laugh," she said.
(Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Richard
Chang)
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