Havana (Cuba), March 22: A batch of 150,000 volunteers will be inoculated with Cuba's Soberana 02 COVID-19 vaccines starting on Monday, according to its Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices.
The shots will target medical frontline workers, scientists from the local biotechnological industry, as well as personnels working in the high-risk areas, the center said.
It came as Cuba on Sunday registered 796 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two more related deaths, bringing the total accounts to 66,758 and 394 respectively.
Francisco Duran, national director of hygiene and epidemiology at the Cuban Ministry of Public Health, told Xinhua that Havana remained the hardest-hit province.
"With COVID-19 cases in all of its municipalities, the disease transmission rate in Havana is high despite measures adopted to bring the pandemic at bay," said Duran.
He also said that along with social distancing guidelines and COVID-19 combating rules, mass vaccination could help the country address the emergency.
In Havana, some 44,000 volunteers were already vaccinated after the homegrown Abdala COVID-19 vaccine entered phase three of clinical trials earlier March.
"I have reported no symptoms after three days of being inoculated with the first dose," said Havana resident Aydenis Ortega, who took part in phase three clinical trials of the vaccine.
"My family and I are lucky to be chosen. I feel optimistic," he said.
Local authorities in Havana, home to two million inhabitants, have set up 79 isolation centers and 12 COVID-19 wards for admitting active cases.
Meanwhile, partial lockdown restrictions remained in place across the country, as the Caribbean nation faces the sharpest rise in infections since the pandemic began in March 2020.
The island country has reported 54,702 COVID-19 cases with 248 deaths so far, according to official statistics.
Starting on Monday, some 48, 000 volunteers from the eastern provinces of Granma, Guantanamo, and Santiago de Cuba would also be administered shots of the locally produced Abdala COVID-19 vaccines, which also entered phase three of clinical trials.
Antonio Emilio Vallin, director of Cuban laboratories, said that the country could produce all the vaccines needed to immunize its 11 million inhabitants by August.
"From that moment on, we can continue working on making vaccines not only for Cuba but also for other countries, which have shown interest in acquiring them," he said.
By the end of the year, Cuba plans to produce 100 million doses of its homegrown vaccines.
Source: Xinhua
