HAVANA, April 21 (CGTN) -- The Cuban government has ordered its state-run power system to further reduce electricity generation in the latest sign that a cash crunch exacerbated by new U.S. sanctions is taking an economic and human toll, a Cuban newspaper reported on Sunday.

Ciego de Avila's provincial newspaper, Invasor, reported that local power generation would be cut by 10 percent to save fuel as part of a nationwide reduction ordered on April 18.

The report said cuts in fuel allocation for power generation begun in 2016 had so far spared the residential sector and essential services from blackouts but warned that could change.

More than 95 percent of the country's electricity is generated by oil-fired plants.

Last month the United States began sanctioning ships and companies carrying Venezuelan fuel to Cuba. Cuba barters medical and other assistance for the oil and will be hard pressed to find an alternative given the cash crunch.

Communist Party leader Raul Castro and President Miguel Diaz-Canel have both told the National Assembly that the country should prepare for hard times, but a more diversified economy meant it would not be as harsh as the 1990s.

Cubans suffered through years of daily blackouts in the 1990s after the fall of Soviet Union.