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Cuban government announced on Monday that the economic toll of the decades-long U.S. blockade reached a record $8.083 billion between March 2025 and February 2026, marking a 7% increase over the previous reporting period and pushing the accumulated damage since the policy began to roughly $178.7 billion at current prices, according to Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.

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The healthcare sector has arguably borne some of the heaviest costs. Rodríguez said power outages and diesel shortages have disrupted operating rooms and life-support equipment, including mechanical ventilators and neonatal incubators, at times forcing medical staff to rely on manual procedures or phone flashlights during complex procedures. He also pointed to the detention of more than 7,000 containers of medical supplies and medicine, attributing the delays to pressure placed on shipping lines, and connected that bottleneck to a sharp rise in infant mortality, which he said climbed from 4 per 1,000 live births in 2018 to 9.9 in 2025.

Beyond the physical toll, Rodríguez described broader disruptions to family life, including difficulty sleeping through hot nights without functioning fans or air conditioning, interrupted schooling for children, and limited access to communication and entertainment networks for young people and the elderly.