More than 200 Cuban doctors and healthcare workers arrived in South Africa on Monday to take part in the fight against the coronavirus in the most affected country on the continent, the South African presidency announced.
According to the latest official report, more than 4,500 cases of Covid-19 infection, including 87 fatalities, have been identified there.
The Cuban delegation includes epidemiologists, public health experts, general practitioners and technicians specializing in medical equipment who “will support the efforts already made in South Africa against the spread of Covid-19”, said the Presidency.
Head of State Cyril Ramaphosa announced the gradual lifting from May 1 of the national confinement order imposed on 57 million South Africans since March 27.
His government has launched a vast screening campaign which has already tested 168,000 people.
South Africa has had close ties to Cuba since the fall of the white racist apartheid regime in 1994. The Castro regime supported the liberation struggle led by the African National Congress ( ANC ) of Nelson Mandela.
Cuba also recently dispatched 250 of its doctors and healthcare workers to Angola to fight the Covid-19.
Havana had sent thousands of soldiers to this southern African country during the Cold War to support the regime of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( MPLA , Marxist) in the civil war (1975-2002).