Cuba assures production of doses for general immunization of its entire population against COVID-19

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 24 (ACN) Authorities of the Cuban ministry of public health ( MINSAP by its Spanish acronym) assured that the country is in technological conditions to guarantee the necessary doses for the vaccination strategy against the COVID-19 that conceives the progressive population immunization.

The productive, industrial and technological strategy of the antidote proposals against the novel coronavirus was designed in such a way that the Soberanas would not interfere in the route of Abdala and Mambisa, since they use different industrial facilities, attached to independent biotechnological centers, said Eulogio Pimentel Vazquez, vice president of BioCubaFarma, in the TV program Mesa Redonda.

By the end of August, around six million Cubans are expected to have been vaccinated against COVID-19, based on an integral strategy that advances by layers following the regulatory protocols and that contemplate vulnerability and risk until reaching a scope that guarantees sufficient immunity of the population against the virus.

At the same time, Ileana Morales Suarez, director of science and technological innovation of MINSAP, explained that in order to reach this figure, it is planned to start an intervention study with 120, 000 health workers from Guantanamo, Granma and Santiago de Cuba, which will have similar characteristics to the one currently being developed in Havana, and which will cover 150, 000 volunteers and some others from the Cuban Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industry Group (BioCubaFarma); for the first time, Abdala and Soberana 02 will coincide at the same time,
although not in the same territories.

Around 22, 000 people have been immunized as part of the Phase III clinical trial of the Soberana 02 vaccine candidate, almost half of the population expected in that study, said Vicente Verez Bencomo, general director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV).

During his presentation in the informative program, the Doctor of Science added that, on the other hand, the intervention study with this anti-COVID-19 drug proposal, without the use of placebo, is advancing with the purpose of measuring the indirect impact on population groups at risk of infection, disease and dispersion of the virus.