The arrival yesterday, Friday, of a Cuban medical brigade to the overseas department of Martinique, the first in French territory, generates this Saturday a wide press repercussion, highlighting the aid.
Cuban doctors arrived as reinforcements in Martinique, the first in France,’ headlines Le Monde, which specifies that 15 doctors, specialists in pneumology, infectious diseases, radiology and emergencies, will be on a three-month mission.

According to the influential newspaper, the brigade will help the Caribbean island face the Covid-19 and to alleviate its lack of health professionals.

France thus becomes the third European state, after Italy and Andorra, to receive Cuban doctors, it says.

For its part, the Franceinfo channel comments that the presence of health professionals from the largest of the Antilles in the overseas department, although it is the first of its kind on French soil, it is not an isolated fact, since ‘close to 30 thousand are deployed throughout the year in sixty countries, where they help complete the health network’.

In the context of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus, this program, launched in the 1960s by Fidel Castro, has reached 28 nations, with around 3,000 professionals, it adds.

Cuban doctors travelled to help France in Martinique, says Radio France Internationale, while the LCI network echoes the statements of the President of the Executive Council of Martinique, Alfred Marie-Jeanne, at the reception of the doctors, who travelled on a special Air Antilles Express flight.

France approved decree 2020-377 on 31st March allowing regional health agencies in Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, St Martin and St Barthélemy to recruit doctors, dentists, midwives and pharmacists from countries outside the European Union.

Source: Prensa Latina