All 28,268 members of Cuba’s 61 medical brigades working abroad are free of the coronavirus, reports Dr. Jorge Hidalgo Bustillo, director of the Medical Collaboration Central Unit
For those who love their family members and their compatriots, the spreading Covid-19 pandemic is cause for alarm, given the risk faced by the more than 28,000 Cuban health workers serving on missions around the world.
But it seems that their solidarity and internationalist vocation has been, thus far, a moral repellent.
According to information provided by Dr. Jorge Hidalgo Bustillo, director of the Central Unit for Medical Collaboration (UCCM), all 28,268 members of Cuba’s medical brigades working in 61countries, around the world, remain free of the virus, to date.
Given the situation, the center is maintaining close contact with brigade leaders via video conferences, and provides a report on the health of doctors and technicians which is updated daily. “There is permanent communication, as has historically been done, and we have here, at the UCCM, a command post that works 24 hours a day,” Dr. Hidalgo reported.
Of the countries where Cuban medical brigades are present, he said, Qatar, Algeria, China, South Africa and Kuwait have cases of infection within their populations, but added, “Our personnel is well protected, and has not had contact with the sick patients.”
He said that communication is also maintained with health directorates in brigade members’ home provinces, to keep family and loved ones informed of their health….
Cuba’s Central Unit of Medical Collaboration reports that our medical professionals working around the world remain free of Covid-19. Photo: Nuria Barbosa
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