Cuba in position to vaccinate the entire country by August

"This extraordinary scientific achievement makes us very optimistic and for sure makes Cuba rebound ready when Canadians start to travel again"

Cuba in position to vaccinate the entire country by August

March 19 - Cuba plans to complete in August the manufacturing of enough doses of COVID-19 vaccines required to vaccinate its entire population, said Doctor Eduardo Martinez, president of BioCubaFarma, a Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries business group.

One of the four vaccines developed by Cuban scientists, Soverana2, is in the final phase of testing, placing the island on track to inoculate its entire population by August this year.

“We are happy to hear about the vaccine roll out in Cuba by the end of the summer, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel” says Lessner Gomez, Director of the Cuba Tourist Board in Toronto, adding: “with the entire population vaccinated, Cuba will be safer than ever and ready to receive Canadians when travel restrictions are lifted”.

The vaccine invented in the island also considered the emergence of new variants of the virus, and therefore a group of researchers from the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, the University of Computer Science and BioCubaFarma, studied and modeled the new mutations and others that could emerge, now, some new antigens containing the mutations present in the variants detected in different countries have already been developed.

Sovereign 2 is a protein-based vaccine that contains part of the coronavirus, unlike the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, does not need to be stored in deep freeze — which may be a draw for poorer countries that often lack the equipment to keep so many doses frozen.

“This extraordinary scientific achievement makes us very optimistic and for sure makes Cuba rebound ready when Canadians start to travel again”, said Mr. Gomez.