A Cuban medical brigade consisting of five doctors, four lab technicians, and 25 nurses is now in Dominica. The medical professionals landed at the Douglas-Charles Airport over the weekend to help the government of Dominica deal with the spreading threat of Coronavirus.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit who thanked the Cuban government for their medical assistance noted that Dominica is not the only country Cuba is helping at this time. He stated that Cuba has deployed numerous healthcare professionals to Italy, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Suriname, and Grenada among other countries.
Skerrit added that 140 Cuban healthcare experts which included 90 specialist nurses were sent to Jamaica to help the nation combat COVID-19. “I have always said that you know who your friends are in times of trouble,” he stated.
Meanwhile, a second PCR machine and hundreds of rapid testing kits are already on their way to the island. The machine will help medical experts to treat coronavirus patients and the rapid testing kits will produce COVID-19 test results in hours or even minutes instead of days.
National epidemiologist, Dr. Shalauddin Ahmed, stated that the country has taken 167 samples in the last two weeks and tested 149. He added that more could have been tested in record time with rapid testing kits if they were readily available.
“We expect to receive, toward the end of this week, 1500 test kits to complement what we currently have,” PM Skerrit announced. “Luckily, we have the ability and capacity to test on island because had we not had that capacity, our efforts would be complicated.”
This article is copyright © 2020 DOM767
