In Cuba there are far fewer cases of COVID-19 in children, and far fewer severe cases. Photo: File/ACN

Havana, February 2 (RHC)-- The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel participated Tuesday in a meeting of experts on COVID-19 in which scientists underscored the good results of vaccinating children and adolescents with Cuban immunogens against the pandemic.

Dr. Maria Eugenia Toledo, lead researcher of the 'Soberana 02' vaccine, praised the decision to immunize that group before the arrival on the island of the Omicron variant.

"We have, compared to other countries, far fewer cases in children and far fewer severe cases. On the other hand, more than 30 percent of the positives reported today are asymptomatic and more than 40 percent have mild forms of the disease," she commented.

The specialist assured that a child who is not vaccinated has 18.2 times more risk of getting sick than one who is fully vaccinated.

Noticiero Nacional de Televisión reported that adverse events associated with immunization are estimated at approximately 0.01 percent.

Cuba's top management insisted on the importance of maintaining rigor in the measures against COVID-19 and not to be confident about the control of the disease.

In the context of the regular meeting of the pandemic control group, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz urged to maintain discipline, comply with protocols, reinforce home isolation and make progress in the island's socioeconomic activities.

For his part, the dean of the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Havana, Raul Guinovart, described the last week as favorable in the control of COVID-19, and confirmed that in most of the territories the trend towards a decrease in the number of confirmed cases will continue in the coming days.