HAVANA, March 21 (Xinhua) -- A Cuban medical corps on Saturday arrived in the Jamaican capital Kingston to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Jamaican media reported.
Jamaica earlier this month declared the island a disaster area and requested Cuba to send medical professionals for help.
"We will assist our sister nation. We are proud of following the principles of the Cuban medical collaboration," Eduardo Ropero, head of the 140-member Cuban corps, was quoted as saying, who meanwhile stressed the importance of solidarity amid the spiraling spread of the novel coronavirus worldwide.
"We, along with Cuban doctors already working in Jamaica as part of a bilateral agreement between the two governments, are committed to helping address COVID-19," he added.
Medical collaboration between the two Caribbean states dates back to 1976. The majority of the Cuban health workers sent to Jamaica to tackle the coronavirus are female doctors and nurses with over 20 years of experience in Cuba's public health system.
Reports said that on Saturday, Cuba also sent more than 50 medical workers to help with the efforts to curb the coronavirus in Italy, the hardest hit in Europe. Currently, Cuban medical staff are also working in Surinam, Nicaragua and Venezuela to help fight COVID-19.
