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– With children still out of school since March 2020 and one of the highest coronavirus rates in the world, Cuba announced a bold new venture on Monday: it began administering a COVID vaccine to children, even toddlers, Voice of America reports. Children aged 2 to 18 receive Soberana 2 and the Soberana Plus booster, vaccines which, like Abdala, the three-shot adult version, were developed in Cuba and are not recognized by the World Health Organization. State media note that the nation hopes to vaccinate at least 90% of the entire population by December, according to the New York Times.
The country of 11 million people has recorded more than 760,000 cases of COVID since the start of the pandemic, with nearly 6,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. A recent average of 70 new infections per day per 100,000 population has been recorded, which is believed to be one of the highest rates in the Western Hemisphere. Meanwhile, authorities are desperate to get the disease under control before the tourist season begins in November and to get children back to school after an 18-month absence: reopening continues to be postponed and most children fail. cannot learn online because of the internet. costs. Instead, most had to resort to learning TV shows.
In clinical trials for adults and some children, Soberana vaccines have been shown to be over 90% effective in protecting against COVID. The Finlay Institute, the state-owned vaccine maker, says the vaccine has been shown to be safe for children and that children have shown an even stronger immune response than adults, according to Reuters. However, this data has not been peer reviewed, and the WHO and other experts say Cuba needs to be more open with its statistics. “There’s a lot for that, there’s a need, and they’re using established technology,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor’s College of Medicine. Times. “But I am concerned about the level of regulatory oversight.”
In the United States and several European countries, only children aged 12 and over have been able to get the COVID vaccine so far, but Cuba is not the only country to have attracted the youngest to the circle of vaccination. Chile has started immunizing children 6 and older, while children as young as 3 receive their vaccine in China and the United Arab Emirates. As for Cuba’s goal of vaccinating 90% of its population, 56% have received their first vaccine so far, with 37% now fully vaccinated. (Read more stories about Cuba.)
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