Cuba Ships 1,5 Million Abdala Vaccines To Venezuela

On Saturday, Cuba's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) announced the delivery of 1,5 million Abdala COVID-19 vaccines to Venezuela.

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"We want to cooperate with the coronavirus immunization of this brother country's people, who currently suffer the consequences of the U.S. blockade amidst the pandemic,” the CIGB tweeted and recalled that other 5,4 million Abdala vaccines had previously been shipped to Venezuela.

This vaccine, which proved to have a 92,28 percent efficacy in clinical trials, has been widely used in this Caribbean country’s mass immunization campaign and is currently being analyzed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for its possible international certification.

So far, Cuban scientists have developed two other COVID-19 vaccines: the Sovereign 02 and the Sovereign Plus, which is the only vaccine in the world designed for disease convalescents. In addition, while the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV) currently works in the Mambisa vaccine, the CIGB develops the Sovereign 01 vaccine.

The Venezuelan government will receive 12 million Cuban vaccines 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 Sovereign 02 vaccine.

"Although this population group is not likely to develop severe disease complications, they can infect their parents or other adults living with them. Therefore, we must vaccinate them,” Health Minister Carlos Alvarado stressed, adding that over 80 percent of the population is likely to be vaccinated by Nov. 30.

As of Nov. 21, Venezuela had reported 424,441 coronavirus cases and 5,073 related deaths, seven of which occurred in the last 24 hours.