With the inauguration this Saturday of the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Las Tunas, almost all Cuban provinces now have facilities of this type for the processing of samples for the detection of COVID-19 and the study of other specialties such as Oncology and Genetics.

Cuba's Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (CECMED) approved the Phase II clinical trial of the Cuban anti-COVID-19 vaccine candidate Soberana Plus.

The Cuban State’s efforts to tackle COVID-19 without renouncing its socioeconomic development plans in the midst of an intensified U.S. blockade were praised in the first of a series of online meetings leading up to 15th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), to be held on October 3-8 in Barbados.

Two new genetic variants of SARS-CoV-2, initially identified in South Africa and California, are circulating in the Cuban province of Matanzas, Fernando Acebo Figueroa, director of the local unit of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology confirmed last night.

Cuba entered the year 2021 with 101 clinical trials led by the National Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials (CENCEC), 46% of them linked to the fight against cancer.

Cuba entered the year 2021 with stomatological indicators similar to those of developed nations, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the intensification of the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade.

It is an uncommon service in everyday life, but the fact of having intensive care units in municipal polyclinics—one of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz’s formidable ideas— is a luxury and a privilege for those who live in Cuba, as well as a life-saving solution.

With more than 1,300 international patents, 81 objects of invention or different products and a productivity of 78,000 pesos per worker, at the end of 2020, the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) was one of the first four High Technology Enterprises (EAT) to acquire this status in the country.

 “It is essential to raise awareness among the entire population about the need for social isolation as a fundamental pillar in the struggle that this province is waging to tackle a new outbreak of the disease,” explained Mario Sabines Lorenzo, vice president of the Provincial Defense Council (CDP).

 The Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) reported that five variants and six mutational patterns of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, are currently circulating in the country, including strains different from group G, the first one reported and still active.

As a member of the Safety and Security team, Isaac Gómez, 60, is part of the staff of one of the five local clinical sites where the vaccine Abdala is being tested for efficacy and where in this effort to preserve life everyone counts, which is the key to success, he stresses.

On the occasion of World Health Day, Dr. José Moya Medina, PAHO/WHO representative in Cuba, acknowledged today that Cuba is privileged to have five vaccine candidates, two of them in Phase III clinical trials and in community interventions.

With the application of the first dose to 30 distinguished doctors and professors of the National School of Public Health and the National Council of Scientific Societies, the intervention study of the anti-COVID-19 Soberana 02 vaccine candidate continued on Tuesday at the Heroes del Moncada polyclinic, located in the capital's Plaza de la Revolución municipality.