Cuba is the first country to immunise toddlers against COVID

On Monday, Cuba became the first country in the world to vaccinate children as young as two years old against Covid-19, using home-grown vaccines that are not recognized by the World Health Organization. The communist island of 11.2 million people intends to immunize all of its children before reopening schools, which have been mostly closed since March 2020. The new school year started on Monday, but only from home because most Cuban homes do not have internet access. Cuba began its immunization program for children aged 12 and up on Friday, after completing clinical testing on minors with its Abdala and Soberana vaccines.

On Monday, Cuba became the first country in the world to vaccinate children as young as two years old against Covid-19, using home-grown vaccines that are not recognized by the World Health Organization. The communist island of 11.2 million people intends to immunize all of its children before reopening schools, which have been mostly closed since March 2020. The new school year started on Monday, but only from home because most Cuban homes do not have internet access. Cuba began its immunization program for children aged 12 and up on Friday, after completing clinical testing on minors with its Abdala and Soberana vaccines.

They are based on recombinant protein technology, which is also used in vaccines seeking WHO approval from the United States’ Novavax and France’s Sanofi. Unlike many other vaccines currently in use, recombinant vaccines do not need to be frozen. Since March 2020, most schools in Cuba have been closed, with some reopening for a few weeks at the end of last year before closing again in January. Schools will reopen gradually in October and November, according to the administration, but only after all students have been vaccinated.

UNICEF has urged schools worldwide to reopen as soon as possible because the “long-term costs of closures are too expensive and difficult to justify.”

There has been an increase in coronavirus infections in Cuba in recent months, putting a strain on the country’s healthcare system. Approximately half of the 5,700 coronavirus deaths recorded since the outbreak began occurred in the previous month, as did nearly a third of all reported cases.

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