HAVANA, Oct 14 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – Cuba will start administering booster shots with its homegrown COVID-19 vaccines next month, Cuban Health Minister, Jose Angel Portal, said at a press conference.
“In the very beginning, we will administer booster shots to vulnerable groups and frontline workers, including doctors, nurses, scientists, and people with the highest likelihood of exposure to the virus,” he said.
Cuba also plans to expand vaccine studies to children under two, after more than 90 percent of kids aged 2-18 have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Portal said.
Cuba on Tuesday registered 2,638 cases and 37 related deaths, bringing the national counts to 923,966 and 7,928 respectively.
Eduardo Martinez, president of Cuba’s biotech company, BioCubafarma, said, the nation would open a new plant to produce vaccines at its Mariel Special Development Zone, some 45 km east of the country’s capital, Havana.
“We are in talks with the World Health Organisation over the global use of our vaccines,” he said. “The Cuban strategy to develop homegrown vaccines has worked.”
Since the start of the island’s vaccination campaign in May, 86.1 percent of the country’s 11 million people have received at least the first dose of a domestic vaccine.– NNN-PRENSA LATINA
