Cuban Ismael Borrero Recovers from COVID-19

Cuban Greco-Roman wrestling Olympic champion Ismael Borrero recovered from Covid-19 disease and was discharged, reported this Friday the national commissioner for the discipline, Luis de la Portilla.

“He is already outside, healthy and very strong psychologically. So was he from the first moment. Now he will comply with the isolation that touches everyone and when we can, he will return to the mattresses”, De la Portilla told the weekly Jit.

Borrero, aged 28, arrived in Cuba on March 17 from Canada and a few days later began to present Covid-19 symptoms, which forced him to enter the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine in this capital.

The athlete and the physiotherapist Milena Rodriguez who was also discharged, were the only ones with the pathogen of the Cuban team that attended the Ottawa Pre- Olympic Games in mid-March.

The other 26 people, including athletes, coaches, managers, doctors, referees, and physical therapists, tested negative for SARS-Cov-2 and were under surveillance.

Borrero, a resident of Havana’s Diez de Octubre municipality, won the gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and a year earlier the gold medal at the world championships held in Las Vegas, United States. In both cases in the category of 59 kilograms.

According to the commissioner, the Cuban family of the wrestling is already calm, but anxious that the world overcomes this pandemic in order to resume the route of preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, postponed for 2021 summer due to the novel coronavirus.

Three other Cubans related to sports tested positive for SARS-Cov-2, the volleyball player hired in Estonia Javier Ernesto Jimenez, already recovered from the disease, the judo referee William Rosquet and the teacher at the Varadero Rowing School Isora Apuin.

In addition, over 120 people from the National Sports Institute remained in isolation.