COVID-19: Cuban doctors to arrive in the Eastern Cape

A group of Cuban doctors are expected to be deployed to the Eastern Cape on Sunday, 17 May 2020, where they will be welcomed by Premier Oscar Mabuyane.

The 20 health workers are part of the 217 medical specialists who landed in the country in April to assist the country as it fights the coronavirus pandemic.

The doctors will be sent to Port Elizabeth and East London, which are considered the hotspots for infections in the province.

There are 1 812 confirmed cases of the respiratory disease in the province and at least 32 people have died, while there have been 746 recoveries so far.

They were placed under quarantine for two weeks in Pretoria and some are expected to start work on Monday, 18 May 2020.

Other Cuban doctors to get to work

In the North West, doctors will report for duty and be stationed within four districts in the province.

The deployment came with a reported R430 million price tag and has sparked outrage amongst South Africans as a number of local and newly-qualified doctors are still sitting at home.

Some of them have accused government of overlooking them.

Health Minister Health Mkhize has however assured South Africans that the doctors will be co-operating with their local counterparts and that the jobs of doctors were not on the line, as a result of the move.

“We welcome them and we want to assure everyone that they will not take anyone’s posts and they will be working alongside South Africans. There should not be anyone that feels that they are a threat to [local employment],” Mkhize had said.

“It’s important to say that the Cuban doctors are coming at our request to reinforce, particularly because they’ve got particular strength in the case of community medicine,” he said.

The Cuban Embassy said the health professionals are and carry out their duties and help the country grapple with the pandemic, which has left the global economy on its knees.

“We have successfully completed, in both Cuba and SA, the strict periods of preventive quarantine and we are all fully ready to depart for the different provinces of the country,”, the embassy said in a statement read.

“It was a moral duty for us to immediately respond to the request for assistance. Just as South Africans and Cubans fought together against the apartheid regime, together we will face and overcome the pandemic”, the statement further read.