Japanese Donation Contributes to Cuba’s Fight against COVID-19

Cuban Health Minister Jose Angel Portal Miranda thanked the Japanese gesture and said that the 13 mobile Xray and 44 ultrasound equipment plus one thousand aspirators included in the donation will have a positive impact on health services being offered to the Cuban people.

Japan has been one of the nations with the largest contributions to Cuba to help fight the pandemic, said the Minister who recalled how important was a previous Japanese shipment of medical equipment and spare parts for 34 local hospitals to support medical specialties like pathologic anatomy, endoscopy and imageology.

Portal Miranda described the donation as a proof of the continuous strengthening of bilateral relations between Cuba and Japan.

Japanese ambassador to Cuba Kenji Hirata said that the medical donation is one more gesture of solidarity from his people to the people of Cuba. The shipment, valued at five million dollars is not the only project undertaken by Japan, said the diplomat as he recalled a donation of imageology equipment in 2018 for all Cuban hospitals. In that case the donation was calculated at 10 million dollars.

The current donation is part of the non-reimbursable financial aid from the Japanese government‘s Economic and Social Development Program for Cuba, signed in 2016 during the visit to Cuba by former Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe.