The Eastern Cape’s capacity to fight COVID-19 received a boost with the arrival of an additional 10 Cuban doctors in the province.
20 of the more than 200 Cuban healthcare professionals who arrived in the country in April were initially deployed in the Eastern Cape.
However, due to the lack of capacity in the province to deal with the increasing number of COVID patients, it was decided to redeploy Cuban doctors from other provinces to the four hotspot areas in the Eastern Cape.
They include Medical Officers, Health Technologists, an Information Manager, and a Senior Nurse.
Latest COVID-19 statistics in South Africa:
#COVID19 Statistics in SA as at 08 August. pic.twitter.com/3WRNrl8vsB
— Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) August 8, 2020
As of today, the total number of confirmed #COVID19 cases is 553 188, the total number of deaths is 10 210 and the total number of recoveries is 404 568. pic.twitter.com/eqX4hViBVc
— Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) August 8, 2020
Head of the provincial Health Department, Dr Thobile Mbengashe says the healthcare workers are bringing in much-needed expertise.
“The skillset that we have and what the cadres from Cuba are bringing in is a skillset to fight epidemics. And within that, you need to have high level of ability to use the information to make a decision. They complement our system of primary healthcare and they strengthen our ability to make primary healthcare the strongest backbone of our healthcare system towards the NHI.”
