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Havana, March 3 (RHC)-- Cuba has announced it is working on the fifth prototype of a COVID- 19 vaccines called Soberana 01-A.

On Tuesday, the Finlay Vaccine Institute director, Vicente Vérez, said that the new proposal would be aimed at people convalescing from the disease.

In a meeting with scientists and experts, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel reiterated his recognition to the whole team working on the vaccine candidates and highlighted that the Soberana 02 and Abdala candidates are about to start Phase III clinical trials this month.

"We are getting closer to the moment when we can safely vaccinate the population on a massive scale, and this news has arrived when we are facing the outbreak that we have had to work hardest to control," the President emphasized.

He also emphasized that this news opens new expectations in the population, "but there must always be the conviction that we are going to work with enormous responsibility in order not to risk human lives," Diaz-Canel said.

For his part, Vérez explained that Soberana 02 is waiting for the authorization of the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment, and Medical Devices, to begin phase III trials.

The candidate will be applied in a first stage to a universe of 44,000 volunteers residing in eight municipalities of Havana, in what he informed will be "an operationally very complex trial."

On the other hand, he added that the Soberana 01 prototype is very safe and explained that the beginning of phase II of its clinical trial will be carried out in the province of Cienfuegos to 700 volunteers.

According to the scientists, Abdala should be applied to 30 thousand volunteers in Santiago de Cuba and 10 thousand people in Guantánamo, both provinces in the eastern part of the country.