Cuba sent a team of 20 health professionals to Cape Verde this Wednesday to provide services in the fight against the coronavirus caused by COVID-19 in that African nation, state media reported.
The group, made up of 5 doctors, 10 nurses and 5 epidemiologists, belongs to Cuba’s Henry Reeve emergency brigade, which for the last 15 years has assisted in natural disasters and health crises in various countries.
https://twitter.com/CubaMINREX/status/1253058595379384322
*Caption: First Henry Reeve internationalist health brigade leaves for Cape Verde.
More information via 👉 https://t.co/ikMSyCbJsI#CubaSalvaVidas pic.twitter.com/13m20YidE2
– Cuban Foreign Ministry (@CubaMINREX) April 22, 2020
With this departure, Cuba has already sent medical personnel to 21 countries since the health alert for the coronavirus began.
A Cuban medical brigade of 79 health workers was already posted in Cape Verde and now it will be joined by this new group to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Sixty-eight 68 positive cases have been reported in that country.
The head of this brigade, Dr. José Antonio Sánchez, highlighted shortly before traveling the commitment of his group to carry out this mission and return healthy to the island.
So far, and since the COVID-19 health crisis began, Cuba has sent 1,218 health professionals to 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Most of them work on the front lines to combat the disease, although advisory brigades have also traveled and they will not deal directly with patients but will advise local health authorities, as in the case of Mexico.
In recent days, Cuba has sent specialist brigades to other African countries such as Angola and Togo.
Brigada médica cubana llegará a Angola para apoyar lucha contra el coronavirus
From Europe, Italy requested assistance from Havana, receiving brigades in the Lombardy and Piedmont regions, as well as Andorra.
Medical personnel have also been deployed to Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and the Caribbean islands of Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia.
https://twitter.com/CubaMINREX/status/1253332680529162240
*Caption: A total of 1,238 health professionals from Cuba, made up by 21 Henry Reeve medical brigades, have left for 20 nations.
👉 https://t.co/uFXvzurdnQ#CubaSalvaVidas pic.twitter.com/2T0RSg6Aws
– Cuban Foreign Ministry (@CubaMINREX) April 23, 2020
The Henry Reeve brigade was created in September 2005 by order of then Cuban President Fidel Castro to help the city of New Orleans (USA) after the devastating passage of Hurricane Katrina, but the government of that country rejected the aid.
Since then, this specialized group has assisted in numerous countries following natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and hurricanes, as well as the cholera epidemics in Haiti and Ebola in Africa.
