The vaccination drive will begin covering 1.7 million people in Havana.

Havana, April 20 (RHC)-- Family doctor's offices in Havana will become the clinical sites for starting the first stage of mass vaccination against COVID-19 in Cuba.

"On Saturday, April 24, Havana should be ready for this process to be carried out with candidates Abdala, from the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB); and Soberana 02, from the Finlay Vaccine Institute," government officials said.

Once the authorities have set the date, the vaccination will begin to cover 1.7 million people, with an average of 85 people per clinic a day.

According to the newspaper Tribuna de La Habana, authorities will reinforce medical assistance with sixth-year interns and other medical students to comply with the rest of the activities to achieve all the necessary conditions.

A phase III clinical trial with Soberana 02 is underway in the capital, involving 44,000 10 volunteers from eight municipalities and an intervention study in populations with a high risk of contagion, disease, and spread of the pandemic in real situations of community transmission.

This intervention study, a common procedure in clinical-epidemiological analyses, covers a total of 150 thousand people, among which more than 70 thousand belong to the health, biotechnological and pharmaceutical sectors.

Also, another 124 thousand people from this province and Guantánamo, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Sancti Spíritus are receiving the Abdala vaccine candidate.