Cuba expects that the entire population will have received at least one dose by the end of this month

Havana, September 27 (RHC)-- A decisive week begins today in Cuba for mass vaccination against COVID-19, a process aimed at ensuring that the entire population has at least one dose of the national immunogens by the end of September.

This is how President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez described it, when eight million 879,811 citizens (79.3 percent) have already received that amount of Soberana 02 injectables, from the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV), and Abala, the latter designed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).

The provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Ciego de Avila and Santiago de Cuba stand out for the advances in vaccination, reflected in the favorable epidemiological scenario they currently present, he said.

In order to reach the entire population of the Caribbean country, vaccination began on Saturday in the capital and several provinces of the country for elderly people convalescing from the disease with a dose of Soberana Plus, from the IFV, and those allergic to thiomersal with 120,000 units of Abdala delivered on Friday by the CIGB.

According to the Ministry of Public Health, thiomersal or thimerosal is a component that was previously used to heal wounds and is present in many of the country's vaccines.

In the case of multi-dose batches of Cuban immunogens, this compound works as a product preservative, hence the need to produce single-dose batches to dispense with the substance.

Some 1,400 children and young people up to 18 years of age who are hypersensitive to this medicine will be inoculated with the national immunogen Soberana 02, and about 22,000 adults with Abdala without this compound, reported the Tribuna de La Habana newspaper.

Some 120,000 convalescents with less than two months of having suffered from the disease will receive a single dose of Soberana Plus and in the case of children, they will not be immunized while the vaccine candidate is awaiting the approval of the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (Cecmed), the island's regulatory body.

At a meeting of the Temporary Working Group for the fight against Covid-19 in this city, it was reported that, according to the plan, next Wednesday the Cuban capital will have immunized 95 percent of its population with a first intervention and about 80 percent will complete the three-dose scheme.

The CIGB confirmed on Saturday on its Twitter account the production of 30 million doses of that injectable that will guarantee the immunization of the population over 19 years of age, as well as pregnant women, nursing mothers, people with transplants, adolescents and young people in terminal grades of the national education system.

Cuba aspires to inoculate its entire population against Covid-19 with its own immunogens this year, for which purpose it is promoting a national vaccination campaign that includes pediatric ages, so far the only one of its kind in the world.