Part of the Cuban medical brigade that collaborated in the struggle against COVID-19 in Andorra, will return to the island in the coming days, according to press reports of the European principality.
The Andorran government carried out a farewell ceremony this Sunday for the 13 Cuban health professionals who are returning to their country in the coming days, according to the Diario de Andorra, which specifies that on May 15 three collaborators from the island had already left.
The official farewell was attended by authorities from the principality―among them the ministers of health and foreign affairs―and the Cuban Consul General in Barcelona, Alain González, and took place at the Panorama Hotel in the parish of Escaldes-Engordany, where Cubans were accommodated during their stay in Andorra.
Before, the Cuban health workers toured “the most iconic and emblematic places in the Principality,” the publication reported, citing among the visited places the Casa del Valle, the surroundings of the Canillo church, the Sanctuary of Meritxell and the Grau Roig area.
The tour “continued to comply with adequate safety and hygiene measures to prevent any risk of contagion by coronavirus,” noted the Diario de Andorra.
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The Cuban brigade that traveled to the European country two months ago was made up of 39 members: 12 doctors―three intensivists, two anesthetists, six internists and one hematologist―and 27 nurses. Their mission was to support their Andorran colleagues in the fight against COVID-19 and to cover the losses caused by the pandemic.
During their stay in the principality, the island’s professionals have carried out “a work of support in the most difficult moments of the pandemic, to the Intensive Care Unit at the Meritxell Hospital and the El Cedro social and health center,” the newspaper said. It does not explain which health workers will be returning to Cuba.
Upon arrival in Andorra, one of the Cuban doctors was positive for SARS-CoV-2, so the brigade was quarantined. However, two evolutionary tests came out negative and the Cuban collaborators were able to join the work without further setbacks.
Dr. Francisco Durán, director of epidemiology of the island’s Ministry of Public Health, explained in this regard that the Cuban doctor “had been tested, like everyone else, before leaving” for Andorra, and it had been negative.
Cuba has sent more than 2,500 health professionals to some 20 countries during the pandemic. This weekend, the brigade that provided its services in Lombardy, Italy, the other country on the European continent to which the island sent health collaborators to combat COVID-19, was also given a farewell.
