The doctors, including community health and infectious disease specialists from Cuba, arrived early Monday morning and were welcomed by military and health authorities.
In response to the request made by the government of the Republic of South Africa, the government of Cuba has decided to support the great efforts that are currently made by South Africa in containing and arresting the spread of the coronavirus, the Cuban official release noted.
The Cuban 217 Health professionals arrived in South Africa on Monday, the Cuban embassy said on Twitter.Africa’s most industrialized countries sent some medical supplies back to Cuba in the plane that the doctors travelled in, it said. South Africa has reported 4,546 virus infections and 87 deaths to date.
South Africa asked China for additional doctors to assist the country in its fight against the coronavirus, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said.
“It should not be difficult to also get additional foreign-trained doctors through for jobs and volunteer openings, if they are registered in South Africa,” Mkhize said on video conference with the country’s parliamentary health committees on Monday.
Some of the Cuban doctors have been “in the frontline of fighting other outbreaks in the world such as cholera in Haiti in 2010, and Ebola in West Africa in 2013,” said South African health minister Zweli Mkhize.
Cuba is well known for its medical diplomacy, though it has not been without controversy. The country with 1,337 recorded cases of Covid-19 and 51 deaths, has the world’s highest ratio of doctors to population and began preparing for the virus early.
The two countries have close ties as Cuba was instrumental in the fight against white-minority rule in South Africa, which did not end until 1994 when anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was elected president.
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