Havana, June 15 (RHC)-- A Cuban medical brigade belonging to the Henry Reeve Contingent -- composed of nine doctors and 10 nurses -- left on Monday for the Turks and Caicos Islands to fight the COVID-19 in that Caribbean archipelago.

During the flag raising ceremony, held at the Central Unit of Medical Cooperation (UCCM) in Havana, the brigadistas reaffirmed their commitment to help the people as much as possible in the midst of the current pandemic, recalling the internationalist legacy of Ernesto Che Guevara.

In the farewell ceremony, Juan Delgado, director of the UCCM, said that the International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics Henry Reeve "is a milestone in Cuban medical collaboration."  According to Delgado, that British overseas territory, located 200 km from Maisí Point, did not hesitate to ask for Cuba's cooperation in strengthening its health system.  

Alfredo Morán, head of the brigade, said that world recognition of Cuban medical collaboration is increasing every day, despite the campaign of discredit by the U.S. government.

A total of 20 collaborators with more than five years of experience in the health system, mostly women, make up the brigade.

Marcia Cobas, deputy minister of public health, and Santiago Badía, general secretary of the National Union of Health Workers, were at the farewell ceremony.

Dirennis Verdecia Rosales, a nurse from Granma, declared to the Cuban News Agency his pride in this, his first internationalist mission, and expressed that the brigade is ready to give its hand in friendship in other lands, as Fidel Castro taught them.

The health personnel leaving today for the Turks and Caicos Islands join the more than three thousand Cuban collaborators present in 28 nations -including 35 brigades- to fight the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19.