Cuban doctors return home from Haiti. (Photo: Twitter / MINSAP)

Havana, October 7 (RHC)-- After six months of intense work in the fight against COVID-19, members of the Cuban Henry Reeve medical brigade returned to the country on Wednesday with the satisfaction of having fulfilled their duty.

"We give you the warmest welcome, and we will soon see you when your quarantine is over," Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel told them in a video greeting.  

The contingent was deployed last March, after the government detected the first positive cases of COVID-19, a disease that so far has affected 8,838 Haitians and claimed the lives of 229.

Cuban medical personnel worked uninterruptedly at the Delmas 2 Care Center in Port-au-Prince and during that period they treated 934 patients, with 44 lives saved.  One thousand 095 laboratory tests were carried out and a total of 10,068 nurses came in.

Luis Orlando Olivero, head of the Cuban mission in Haiti, confirmed to Prensa Latina that in addition to the care of patients, the Cuban brigade was involved in the creation of the projects and protocols to confront COVID-19, in addition to setting up a hospital, dedicated exclusively to the patients of the pandemic.

Oliveros pointed out that at the request of the Haitian government, a smaller group continues to help in the training of human resources in the area of intensive care and from the point of view of assistance.

In the farewell ceremony in Port-au-Prince, the Cuban professionals received the eternal gratitude of the Haitian Minister of Health, Marie Greta Roy Clement, who described them as apostles of excellence and knowledge.

Roy Clement recalled the altruism of the Cuban doctors, who often resorted to "their own reserves to find the miraculous molecule necessary to free the patient from his most alarming symptoms."

The Henry Reeve Brigade left Haiti when the country reported a marked drop in the rate of positives, and its authorities believe that the pandemic is under control.