Cuban vaccines are still in phase 3 testing, but the regime has already announced it will apply them to nearly two million people

Cuban health authorities announced on Thursday that in May, vaccine candidates will start administering en masse in Havana against the coronavirus Sovereign 02 Yes Abdala, which are in the third and final phase of testing to determine their effectiveness.

A total of 1.7 million people of the 2.2 million living in the Cuban capital will receive the investigational drug within the framework of “intervention studies” carried out with these two formulas, which They do not yet have emergency use or registration authorization, and of whose effectiveness there is still no data available.

Havana, which has become the epicenter of the pandemic for several months, has the highest disease incidence rate in Cuba over the past two weeks with 382.6 infections per 100,000 population, and measures Current containments have failed to mitigate transmission.

The study will start with people aged 60 and over, followed by those aged 40 to 59 and those aged 19 to 39, explained on public television the head of primary health care (APS) of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap), María Elena Soto.

Administration will be carried out in polyclinics and offices of the vast primary care network with the support of medical students, university students of other specialties and others who have been trained for it, according to Soto.

The initiative excluded people with hypertension, diabetes and heart disease, as well as pregnant women, women in the postpartum phase and those who are breastfeeding their children.

People who have already passed COVID-19 will receive another of the candidate vaccines developed by Cuba, Soberana Plus, formulated to boost the immunity of people who have already contracted SARS-CoV-2.

This massive application is being carried out in parallel with the phase III clinical trials of Soberana 02, which involve 44,010 volunteers in Havana, and those of Abdala, in which 48,000 others are participating in the eastern provinces of Santiago, Granma and Guantánamo.

In addition to Soberana 02, Soberana Plus and Abdala, Cuba is studying two other possible formulas called Sovereign 01 Yes Mambisa, both during the previous phases of the investigation.

After keeping the outbreak at bay for most of the past year, the island has failed to control a third wave of infections, which began three months ago and is still on the rise. In total, Cuba accumulates 97,967 cases of COVID-19 and 559 deaths.

The Cuban government has not purchased vaccines on the international market and is not part of the Covax mechanism created under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) to promote equitable access to immunization in low- and middle-income countries.

(With information from EFE)

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