[Reprinted: Loop Caribbean News, 4-6-2020]
A group of health care specialists from Cuba has travelled to St Kitts and Nevis as part of its COVID-19 pandemic response. The group which comprises of 30 nurses and four doctors all trained in Intensive Care Medicine, arrived in the Federation on Saturday.
Chief of Staff at the Joseph Nathaniel France (JNF) General Hospital, Dr Cameron Wilkinson said: “This will help bridge the gap that we have to help us fight the COVID-19 disease. I am a physician and as a physician on the forefront…I love my country and I signed up knowing that we might pay the ultimate sacrifice which is with our lives.”
Twenty-eight members of the Cuban contingent will be stationed in St Kitts while the other six will work in Nevis.
During a welcome reception on Saturday, Dr Wilkinson said: “For these persons to leave their country to come and fight this vicious disease knowing that they will pay that sacrifice for us, we all should be grateful and so I want every Kittitian and Nevisian to be thankful for what we are experiencing here today.”
To date St Kitts and Nevis has seven confirmed cases of COVID-19. On Saturday, Prime Minister Timothy Harris declared a state of emergency which will remain in effect for 14 days. The Prime Minister said this measure had become necessary to protect the lives of citizens and residents.