Overwhelmed by the Pandemic, Panama Will Hire Foreign Doctors from Cuba and Elsewhere

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Panamanian government announced on Tuesday, December 15th, that it will hire doctors from Cuba and other nations to combat the pandemic, which has overwhelmed the country’s health system, which has the highest number of COVID-19 infections in Central America.

“The national government has made the decision to bring foreign doctors from the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba,” reported the Minister of Health of Panama, Luis Francisco Sucre.

The president of Panama, Laurentino Cortizo, had announced in August his government’s intentions to hire Cuban doctors, but withdrew after local criticism and the visit of senior US officials, opposed to the aid from Havana.

But now the Panamanian government has changed its mind because it has not been able to hire “enough specialized human resources” to face the pandemic, despite several calls to increase the number of doctors and nurses in health centers, Sucre said.

In Panama the practice of medicine and nursing is restricted to Panamanian professionals. However, the country faces the biggest health crisis since the arrival of the new coronavirus.

With 4.2 million inhabitants, Panama has the highest number of infections from the pandemic in all of Central America, with nearly 200,000 accumulated cases and 3,411 deaths.

The nation, which reopened its borders in mid-October and began to reactivate its economic activities, is experiencing its most critical moment, with more than 18,000 new infections and 218 deaths in the last 9 days.

According to official data on Monday, there are more than 26,000 isolated people and 1,435 hospitalized for covid-19, of which 185 are in intensive care units.

The situation has caused the saturation of hospitals, some of which can no longer receive more patients, and the exhaustion of health personnel, who are not enough to deal with the new situation.

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