Cuba, a country known for dispatching doctors to needy countries as part of a decades-long medical diplomacy effort, said on Saturday it was sending more than 200 doctors and other specialists to South Africa.

The contingent is part of more than 1,200 Cuban health professionals deployed to 22 countries to help fight the pandemic. The group was scheduled to arrive at an airport near Johannesburg on Sunday, according to the Cuban Embassy in South Africa.

Since the 1960s, Cuba has sent more than 100,000 workers to countries that have requested help. More than 30,000 Cuban doctors, nurses, technicians are currently deployed in more than 60 countries, mostly in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Cuban doctors have helped fight the Ebola virus in West Africa, blindness in Latin America and cholera in Haiti.

The efforts have earned the country praise for bringing medical help to the front lines of a crisis.

But they have also drawn criticism, including from those who suggest the deployments are a way of deflecting attention from the government’s poor human rights record. The programs have also been seen as a tool to exert Cuban influence around the world.

In most cases, Cuba has charged other countries for the services. Some doctors have criticized the arrangement, saying they get too small a share of the money, and moved to break ranks with the government.

But Cuba has never charged for disaster response or medical emergency deployments before the pandemic, Cuban officials said. It’s not clear if Cuba is charging for the coronavirus deployments.

After the coronavirus pandemic hit, Cuba dispatched its doctors and other health professionals to Belize, Nicaragua, Angola and Qatar, among other countries. On March 23, Cuban doctors were deployed to Italy to fight the outbreak there, the first time its doctors have been sent to Europe.

The group in South Africa includes family physicians, epidemiologists, biotechnology experts and other specialists, according to the Cuban Embassy in South Africa.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/world/coronavirus-news.html#link-2694208a