Speaking to Cuban journalists after touring the previous day the provisional hospital installed in Bahia de Caraquez, in the province of Manabi, severely affected by the earthquake of 7.8 degrees on the Richter scale, the head pf state greeted the members of Cuba’s Henry Reeve medical brigade.

"We count on the solidarity of Cuba, and Cuba can count on that of Ecuador, stated the dignitary, who emphasized the" infinite gratitude "of his people towards the island.

Correa lamented the deaths of three Cuban physicians who were voluntarily working in the town of Pedernales at the time of the earthquake and conveyed his solidarity to their relatives and to the people of Cuba.

The brigade sent by Cuba last Sunday includes rescue workers, health professionals that joined the more than 700 health workers offering their services permanently in Ecuador for two years, as part of 11 agreements signed by the two countries.

The Attorney General's Office indicates that so far the death toll from the earthquake amounts to 587, but search efforts continue to find bodies among the rubble in areas of Ecuador's northwest coast amid successive aftershocks -more than 600 so far.

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