Cuban medical team in Guinea-Bissau to combat COVID-19

North Caribbean country Cuba has sent a medical team to Guinea-Bissau, a tropical country in West Africa to help in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, said media reports on Tuesday.

A 21-member medical team -- 11 doctors and 10 nurses – arrived in the African country, where Cuba has already extended assistance in fighting the deadly Ebola epidemic from 2014-2016, the Africa news website reported.

According to US-based Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resources Centre Guinea-Bissau has reported 1,614 COVID-19 cases so far with 22 deaths.

“Today we received this Cuban team who came to join another team already present here, to reinforce the fight against the pandemic,” reported Africa news quoting Jean-Marie Kepela, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official in Guinea-Bissau.

According to Cuban Health Ministry, it has recorded a 94.4% recovery rate, indicating that Cuba has been able to control the pandemic.

“They have been assisting us our independence, and they are assisting us to this day. For this reason, we should not be surprised that the Republic of Cuba has sent a medical team to help us in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the news report quoting Magda Robalo Correia e Silva, the minister of public health of Guinea-Bissau.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba has sent some 3,000 medical teams to 28 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa as well as to the Middle East to help in combating the pandemic.

More than 200 Cuban healthcare workers arrived in South Africa late April at the request of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Since first appearing in Wuhan, China last year in December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions. The US, Brazil, and Russia are currently the hardest-hit countries in the world.

The pandemic has killed more than 502,000 people worldwide, with over 10.16 million confirmed cases and 5.14 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.