More than 200 doctors from Cuba have to arrive in South Africa to help fight coronavirus. The medics left on a plane that first carried a donation of South African medical supplies to the Caribbean island, its embassy in Pretoria said.
They are among 1,200 healthcare workers sent to battle Covid-19 in 22 countries that have requested help from the communist state. South Africa is to begin easing strict lockdown restrictions next month.
More than 1.5 million people will be allowed to return to work, some schools will reopen, deliveries of hot food will be permitted and cigarettes will be back on sale. But the sale of alcohol and public gatherings will still be banned.
The country, which at one point was following the UK’s infection curve, has stunned observers in the way it has slowed the spread of the virus, says the BBC’s Andrew Harding from Johannesburg.
It has recorded 4,361 cases of coronavirus, including 86 deaths.
The Cuban doctors – arriving in Johannesburg late on Sunday night – are to be deployed to different provinces by South Africa’s Department of Health, Cuba’s ambassador Rodolfo Benítez Verson has said.
Source: Fiilafmonline/BBC
