Cuban Health Workers Return Home after Fighting COVID-19 in Panama and Mexico

Havana, July 15 (ACN) Cuban health workers with the International Contingent Henry Reeve, specialized in disasters and serious epidemics, returned home Thursday after assisting the people of Panama and Mexico against COVID-19.

Cuban President and top Communist Party leader Miguel Diaz-Canel welcomed the health specialists through a videoconference as they arrived here after concluding an outstanding and effective work over the past months in the two Latin American nations.

Jorge Delgado, director of the Central Medical Cooperation Unit, said that they arrive here in a sensitive moment due to the high incidence of COVID-19 cases on the island. He said he was sure they will now join the fight against the pandemic to keep saving lives now in Cuba.

Doctor Ana Mengana, cardiologist, said that when they arrived in Panama in December the country was reporting nearly 4 thousand COVID-19 cases a day with some 50 deaths while intensive care units were on the verge of collapse, but the situation was reverted later; however a recent increase of new cases has again worsened the situation in the central American nation, she said.

Nurse Ibrahim Espinosa told ACN that in Panama like in other nations of the world Cuban medicine met its principles about offering assistance where it is most needed, while now he is ready to work in his homeland again.

The Cuban specialists who assisted Panama carried out over 53 thousand consultations and saved more than 1.8 thousand lives; they also participated in educative actions about the prevention of the coronavirus disease.

Meanwhile in Mexico, the Cuban health workers administered 449 major and minor surgeries and other actions by nurses and doctors which deserved the acknowledgement of the Mexican health authorities and the National Government.