The governments of Barbados and Cuba signed a new Bilateral Cooperation Agreement on Health between the Ministry of Health and Wellness of Barbados and the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba. On the Barbadian side, the Most Honorable Mrs. Janet Phillips, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Wellness was the signatory, and on the Cuban side, the Ambassador, Sergio Jorge Pastrana. The new agreement establishes the presence of a Cuban medical brigade in Barbados made up of medical, laboratory and nursing specialists who will provide services in the various health facilities in the country.
Based on the satisfactory experience of the help and support provided by the detachment of the Cuban Medical Brigade "Henry Reeve" for two years and two months in the confrontation with the SARS-COV-2 virus pandemic, which is still affecting With greater or lesser influence throughout the world, the health authorities of both countries have agreed to establish a joint working relationship in this field to address various specialty services in the country.
The Henry Reeve Brigade, made up of 111 nursing specialists, 11 doctors, and four laboratory technicians, of which 114 are women, and which is carrying out a cycle of work that involves a lot of sacrifice, but has been successful in confronting the pandemic, will return to the Homeland at the beginnings of June. It is noteworthy that their intervention since arrival and throughout 2020 was able to contain the severity of the first cases of the alpha variant in the country and ensured that Barbados only had 7 deaths in the entire first year of the pandemic, until the appearance of the delta variant in 2021.
The brigade was recognized with an Outstanding Service pin and the Cuban Embassy received a commemorative plaque of recognition at the Humanitarian Awards granted in the country on the occasion of Heroes' Day in 2022.