A Cuban medical brigade made a stopover in Madrid this Sunday, from where they will go to the Principality of Andorra to provide support in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in that European country.
“Spontaneously, at the airport’s exit, passengers began to applaud them and taxis to honk their horns, in well-deserved tribute to health workers, and especially to the Cubans, whom they immediately identified,” wrote the Cuban ambassador in Spain, Gustavo Machín, in Facebook.
The Cuban health brigade, made up of 39 health professionals, is the second to go to Europe and the thirteenth that the island has sent to other countries since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, the Agencia Cubana de Noticias news agency reported.
Cuba guarantees immediate health care for all its citizens at no cost and offers its solidarity aid to those who need it, while the governments of the planet face the dilemma of preserving the health of people or the economy, said Dr. Luis Enrique Pérez, head of the brigade, quoted by the source.
The Andorran minister of health announced this Saturday that in order to face a possible increase in the number of coronavirus patients in that country, and especially the severe ones, they are awaiting the arrival of the team of Cuban professionals, specialized in intensive care and mechanical ventilation, according to Europa Press.
The Principality of Andorra has registered 308 confirmed cases of coronavirus, of which 299 are active, 5 are patients who have been discharged and 4 deceased.
There are currently some 28,000 Cuban doctors in 59 countries, of which 37 have cases of COVID-19. Over the years, more than 400,000 professionals have completed missions in 164 countries in Africa, the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia.
Cuba sent 53 doctors and nurses to the Italian region of Lombardy, and in the last two weeks brigades of doctors and nurses have left for Angola, Grenada, Suriname, Jamaica, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Saint Lucia.
Six specialists from the Henry Reeve medical brigade traveled to Venezuela, where more than 20,000 Cuban doctors work, and another five from that same contingent traveled to Nicaragua to collaborate with that country in the implementation of control, confrontation and treatment protocols for the COVID-19.
In the coming days, new brigades are slated to depart for other nations. The specialties most demanded by the countries are intensive therapy, virology, epidemiology and pharmacology, according to reports from the state press.
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