Nairobi, July 18 (RHC)-- A brigade of the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors for Disasters and Major Emergencies has arrived in Kenya to support the Kenyan response to the pandemic caused by the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 disease.

The brigade is made up of 20 specialists in intensive care, anesthesiology, internal medicine, pediatrics, endocrinology, cardiology and nephrology.  It will join Kenya's efforts to halt the spread of the pandemic, which has already claimed the lives of more than 220 of the more than 12,000 people infected.

The Cuban aid workers were received at "Jomo Kenyatta" International Airport by Dr. Rashid Aman, Chief Administrative Secretary of the Ministry of Health and by Dr. Eva Njenga, chairperson of the Council of Physicians and Dentists of Kenya, among other health leaders of the country.

On the Cuban side, Ambassador Ernesto Gómez Díaz and Dr. Damodar Peña Pentón, coordinator of the Cuban Medical Brigade in Kenya, visited the air terminal.

Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, dozens of Cuban medical brigades have voluntarily traveled to countries on several continents, responding to requests from their governments, with the sole purpose of saving lives.

The arrival of the Cuban doctors in Nairobi had a positive impact on different media and our doctors were warmly welcomed at the airport and at Kenyatta University Hospital in this capital.

Since June 2018, a Cuban medical brigade has been providing services in most of the counties of this East African country, deserving the love and respect of patients and authorities of Kenya.