For a second consecutive year Communist-run Cuba canceled its emblematic May Day march though Havana's Plaza de la Revolution Square on Saturday as it battles a surge in COVID-19 cases and a scarcity of basic goods.

Across the island, small groups of dignitaries gathered at abandoned squares that would usually be filled by crowds of banner-waving citizens marking International Workers Day, the country's most important holiday after Jan. 1, victory day of former leader Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

"Congratulations workers! It is monumental what has been done to survive the pandemic under a reinforced blockade and still move forward," President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is also first secretary of the Communist party, wrote on Twitter.