(Havana) Cuba on Friday launched a national corona virus vaccination campaign for children and adolescents between the ages of two and 18, set up by the Communist government before schools reopen.
While other countries such as China and Venezuela have announced their willingness to vaccinate children, Cuba faces an increase in cases that shake its health system.
The campaign is aimed at adolescents 12 and older, before the Cuban vaccines Abdala and Soperana were initially extended to children between the ages of two and 11 from September 15.
“I always wanted to be vaccinated” against Covit-19, testifies to AFP Laura Landigua, 17, who received the first of three scheduled injections at Saul Delcado High School in the Vadodara district of La Havana.
A few days ago, his company warned students through social networks: “They told us the hour and the center we had to go to”.
At that point, the doctors “measured the tension and temperature for us, they kicked us out, and then we were vaccinated”, after “waiting an hour, to see if we had a reaction”. But “I feel better,” he says.
“It’s really a good experience,” added 18-year-old Ronald Martinez.
More Back to School: Schools across the country have been closed since March 2020, and briefly reopened a few weeks later, at the end of the year, before reopening in January.
Schoolchildren and students have been following the lessons through television and will have to do it again from Monday, the day of their return to Cuba.
The Cuban government has decided not to reopen schools before all children in the country are vaccinated: plans to gradually reopen institutions in October and November once the campaign is over.
In the evening, the Drug Regulatory Agency (Cecmed) announced that it had approved the emergency use of the Soperana 2 vaccine, one of the vaccines used in this campaign for children and adolescents between the ages of two and 18 years.
The island, home to 11.2 million people, has accumulated 672,599 cases, including 5,538 deaths. In early August, 95,100 Cuban minors became infected with Kovit-19 and seven died.
The combination of Cuban vaccines not approved by the WHO is based on reconstituted protein, the same technique used by the American company Nova Vox.
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