By August, six million Cubans will be vaccinated against COVID-19

Havana, Mar 23 (ACN) By the end of August, Cuba expects that around six million people will have been vaccinated against COVID-19, based on an integral strategy that advances by strata following regulatory protocols and that contemplate vulnerability and risk until reaching a coverage that guarantees sufficient immunity of the population against the virus.

This was stated by Dr. Ileana Morales Suarez, director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP).

She said that in order to reach this figure, it is planned to start an intervention study with 120 thousand health workers from Guantánamo, Granma and Santiago de Cuba, which will have similar characteristics to the one currently being developed in Havana, and will cover 150 thousand volunteers; for the first time Abdala and Soberana 02 will coincide at the same time, although not in the same territories.

Also included in this moment of intervention are around 490,000 workers of the health system in the capital, Santiago de Cuba, Granma and Guantanamo, and of the Group of the Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries of Cuba (BioCubaFarma), he said.

At the same time, said the MINSAP directive, they paid attention to the productive support with the necessary doses of the outlined strategy and every decision is based on the guarantee of the productive capacity.

Morales Suárez detailed that the progress in the issue of vaccine candidates will be progressive, but with very solid steps, safe at every moment and with extreme respect for the Cuban people, aware of the challenge posed by this disease, only one year after its introduction in the country.
The intervention study began in Havana because it is the center of transmission of the disease in the country and where it is expected to obtain the greatest amount of information from the results, the MINSAP directive stressed.

She pointed out that for these investigations in the capital, all clinical sites, nursing personnel, medical equipment and documentation have been certified and work is being carried out to guarantee success in the rest of the provinces.

The development of these studies requires logistic assurance, the necessary doses of the candidates, preparation of the personnel, cold chains and ethics committees, so it is a complex organization, although Cuba has the experience to do it successfully, stressed the director of Science and Technological Innovation.

She pointed out that the current results are due to scientific research policies, Cuban research centers and the vision of the Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro, on the importance of biotechnology and the symbiosis between the industry and MINSAP.