Cuban doctors and health technicians arrive in SA to get Covid under control
A contingent of Cuban doctors and medical personnel arrived over the weekend in South Africa’s to assist their medical colleagues in trying to contain the spread of the corona virus.
As of Sunday, 26 April, South Africa has reported 4546 infections and 87 people have died of the disease so far. South Africa is the African country with the highest number of detected cases, followed by Egypt and Morocco, both also with infections of more than 4000 each.
The arrival of 217 Cuban health specialists follows a request by the South African president, HE Cyril Ramaphosa to his Cuban counterpart, HE Diaz Canel Bermudez.
Amongst the group are experts in epidemiology, biostatics and general public health. A number of family physicians will guide interactions between testing teams and residents in many townships and towns. The group will also assist South African health workers to promote health and surveillance at community level.
There are also a number of technical experts to assist in the maintenance of the medical inventory, to deploy more equipment, and to fix older equipment which has become unserviceable. In this type of maintenance, the health technology engineers will work closely with South African technicians.
(Photograph by Elmond Jiyane)
