The vaccination of infants against COVID-19 is an achievement of Cuban science. Photo: Abel Padrón Padilla. Cubadebate.

Havana, February 2 (RHC)-- The Cuban health system became the world leader in vaccinating its population against COVID-19, reaching a new milestone in the immunization of young children, according to several U.S. media outlets.

The publication The Hill dedicated an article to the work of Cuban scientists, who managed to make our country the only nation in the world to create vaccine doses for children from two years of age onwards.

More than 95% of Cuban infants between the ages of two and 18 have been fully vaccinated against the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the newspaper noted.

The digital site Our World in Data estimated that Cuba has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with about 93% of its population immunized as of January 31.

The Hill also recalled that the Caribbean country began vaccinating its children in September 2021, the only one to vaccinate such young children at that time.

"The development of its own vaccines has allowed Cuba to immunize that high number of citizens and eliminate the need to compete for foreign doses, as has happened with other nations," the media outlet noted.

The United States does not yet have an effective vaccine for infants. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to expand the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to children between six months and five years of age by the end of February.

For the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, Peter Hotez, vaccinating young children "is essential", especially in the United States, given the high number of young children hospitalized with the new Omicron variant.