Havana, March 30 (RHC)—Cuba has sufficient human resources to face the Covid-19 as well as to assist other countries, Minister of Public Health (MINSAP) of the Caribbean nation, Jose Angel Portal says.

The country has 95,000 doctors, 84,000 nurses, and an indicator of nine doctors per every thousand inhabitants. In total numbers, this represents enough availability of medical personnel to, besides, help those who need it, the minister indicated at a press conference on Sunday.

Portal noted that authorities are being extremely careful when assessing the professional who can go out on a mission in other countries, making sure that his or her departure does not affect the service to the population.

Last week, the island sent some 500 health professionals to a dozen countries in response to requests from their governments to stop the expansion of Covid-19.

According to MINSAP, Cuban personnel arrived in affected regions such as Lombardy, in Italy, and Andorra in Europe. In the Caribbean, it has sent  medical contingents to Jamaica. Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, St. Lucia and Belize.

The teams are made up of doctors and nursing graduates, most of whom are members of the Henry Reeve International Brigade of doctors specialized in disaster situations and serious epidemics, created by the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro in September of 2005.

Since its foundation and before the Covid-19 epidemic, the Henry Reeve Brigade has sent  28 contingents to 22 countries, deploying some 7,9 thousand professionals, working in relief efforts in 16 flooding events, eight hurricanes, eight earthquakes, and four epidemics. Among them, three contingents were combating Ebola in West African countries.