Rome, May 23 (RHC)-- Great emotions were experienced this Saturday in the Italian city of Crema during the event organized by local officials to express appreciation to the Cuban health collaborators in the battle fought in the region of Lombardy against COVID-19.

The centrally-located Plaza del Duomo served as the stage for the tribute to the 52 members of the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade who carried out the noble mission, together with their Italian colleagues, during two months in the main hospital and in another field hospital, as well as in a care center for elderly people with diseases associated with the COVID-19.

Regional and local authorities presided over the activity in which also participated the Cuban ambassador in Italy, José Carlos Rodríguez, the consul general in Milan, Llanio González, and the president of the National Association of Friendship Italy-Cuba (Anaic), Irma Dioli.

The main figures of the tribute were the Secretary of Health and Welfare of the Lombardy Region Government, Giulio Gallera; the Mayor of Crema, Stefania Bonaldi and the Ambassador, who followed closely the work of the brigade headed by Dr. Carlos Ricardo Perez.

Also attending were mayors from neighboring towns, representatives of the institutions that make up the municipal government and the clergy. 

More than five thousand medical services, 3,668 nurses and 210 direct medical discharges guarantee the results of the work, in which they demonstrated professionalism, dedication, altruism and humanistic vocation, qualities with which they won the affection of all.

Since their arrival in Lombardy, a city of about 34,000 inhabitants, the presence of the 36 doctors, 15 nursing graduates and a logistics specialist were welcomed with numerous expressions of sympathy and appreciation, which multiplied as the days went by to the point that today they are considered friends forever.