Havana, Cuba.- Cuban Public Health Minister José Ángel Portal and other officials from the sector welcomed more than 150 physicians who arrived at Havana's José Martí International Airport from Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas.

During the welcome ceremony, Deputy Public Health Minister Alfredo González highlighted the work done by the Cuban doctors in Brazil, where most of them worked in areas of difficult access where there is a shortage of healthcare services.

On November 14, the Cuban Ministry of Public Health announced the decision to withdraw from the More Doctors Program ceated in 2013 by then President Dilma Rousseff, due to Bolsonaro's conditions and threats regarding the stay of the Cuban health professionals.

Since 2013, Cuba has participated in Brazil's More Doctors Program, which had the noble purpose of ensuring medical care to the largest number of the Brazilian population, in accordance with the principle of universal health coverage promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In five years, nearly 20,000 Cuban collaborators attended to some 113 million people in more than 3,600 municipalities, according to official statistics.

The arrival in Cuba of the doctors who were working in Brazil began on Friday. Other flights with Cuban health collaborators are expected to arrive in the next three days. (PL)

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