Cuba sends medical staff to Qatar amid pandemic

ANKARA After sending medical professionals to 19 countries in a short period of time, Cuba stood out as one of the few countries to lead the global fight against the novel coronavirus. Qatar on Wednesday became the latest country the Caribbean nation has extended help after Cuban doctors and nurses arrived in the Gulf nation. "A brigade of Cuban health professionals arrived in Qatar to support the fight against COVID-19," Cuba's Health Ministry announced in a statement. The ministry underlined that Cuban doctors and nurses "will begin their work after a short period of quarantine." Referring to the cooperation with Cuba, Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal, the co-president of the Qatar National Pandemic Preparedness, said Cuban doctors are "excellent" and the "friendly" country sent medical professionals on the request of Qatar. The ground zero of the virus, China and one of the worst-hit countries Italy, as well as several Caribbean and Latin American countries, including Haiti, Barbados, Venezuela, and Suriname, among others, received medical personnel from Cuba so far. The confirmed coronavirus case count is at 814 in Cuba, while 24 deaths and 151 recoveries were reported so far, according to the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University data. Overall, the virus has spread to 185 countries, infecting over 2.07 million people, and killing over 138,100 worldwide since it first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. Nearly 523,000 have recovered from the virus. Despite suffering from heavy U.S. sanctions for several decades, Cuba, with a population a little over 11 million and 80,000 doctors nationwide, has managed to build a niche healthcare system.