Cuba will deploy Sinopharm from China alongside self-produced vaccines

HAVANA, Aug. 28 (Reuters) – Cuba, which has so far exclusively deployed its own-produced COVID-19 vaccines, will also begin using its Chinese ally China’s Sinopharm vaccine in a bid to fight one of the worst. outbreaks of coronavirus in the world.

The health authorities will apply from Sunday two doses of Sinopharm combined with a Cuban reinforcement in the central province of Cienfuegos.

The effectiveness of the combined vaccine exceeds 90%, according to the media, without detailing where the data came from or whether the Cuban drug regulator had authorized the use of the Chinese vaccine. The World Health Organization urgently approved the firing of Sinopharm in May.

Authorities who had said earlier this month that they could produce enough vaccines for all of Cuba in September did not explain why they chose to deploy a foreign one.

“It seems obvious that the decision to apply Sinopharm to Cienfuegos is associated with the limited availability of Cuban vaccines and the urgency caused by the explosion of cases,” said Cuban virologist Amilcar Pérez Riverol, based in Brazil.

The Ministry of Health had said in May that the plan was to vaccinate 70% of the population in August, but so far it had only reached around 30%, said Pérez Riverol, who has become a guru. of COVID-19 data analysis in Cuba, on Facebook.

Cuba, meanwhile, has one of the highest COVID-19 case loads in the world, overwhelming its revered health system heavily focused on prevention and primary care.

The outbreak comes amid a shortage of commodities, including medicine, which has fueled anger against the government, prompting unprecedented national protests last month.

Cuban authorities, who blame the economic crisis largely on a tightening of US sanctions, have hailed donations of medical equipment and food since protests by allies such as China, though it was unclear. whether vaccines were given or purchased.

TOO LATE?

Government critics had long urged him to purchase foreign vaccines instead of simply relying on self-produced ones, accusing him of placing his desire for prestige and good publicity above health issues. Authorities said they would rather focus scarce resources on vaccine development and production than imports.

U.S. President Joe Biden said last month the United States was willing to send vaccines to Cuba if it was assured that an international organization would administer them.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel replied that if the United States cared about the humanitarian situation on the island, they would lift US sanctions accusing, among other things, of halting the production of their own vaccines. .

The country has developed an unusually large biotechnology sector for a country of its size, in part in a bid for sovereignty, given the paralyzing US trade embargo.

It is the only Latin American country to have completed the development of two COVID-19 vaccines, Sovereign 2 and Abdala, which have aroused the interest of nations around the world, from Jamaica and Mexico to Vietnam and Argentina.

All three vaccines with vaccine are said to be more than 90% effective, although data have not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals. He has authorized both for emergency use.

Report by Sarah Marsh; Additional report by Nelson Acosta Edition by Marguerita Choy

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