Cuba, COVID-19: 81.5% Vaccinated and Breaking Vaccine Apartheid

Today, the Cuban Ministry of Public Health reported that 81.5 percent (nine million 114 thousand 147 people) have the complete vaccination plan against COVID-19.

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According to the report, 10 million 142 thousand 765 citizens have taken the first dose with national immunizers (Soberana 02, Abdala and Soberana Plus), with a second dose 9 million 187 thousand 541 and a third dose 8 million 631 thousand 104. In Cuba -adds to the Ministry- 27 million 961 thousand 410 doses have been administered.

The country is moving forward with the booster dose process. The director of Scientific Policy of the Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries Group (BioCubaFarma), Rolando Pérez, explained that Cuban vaccines have a three-dose schedule.

The booster dose will not only allow increasing the number of memory cells, but of higher quality, he said, and added that "we will be boosting antibodies with better neutralizing capacity."

The booster dose is not a phenomenon exclusive to Cuba, since 27 countries have approved it, 12 of them in Latin America, and other vaccines can be combined in this process.

"Our immunogens are safe, without serious adverse effects," ratified Perez, who explained that the strategy will achieve greater protection against new variants and flexibility measures.

Pérez also explained that the island country, subjected to an inhuman six-decades-long criminal blockade, is covering its own population's needs and assisting other nations in breaking the disparity of vaccine distribution worldwide. 

As an example, Cuba is sending 12 million jabs to Venezuela to immunize its population. Thanks to the progressive arrival of the shipments, the Bolivarian authorities began to vaccinate children between two and eleven years of age with the Soberana 02 vaccine.