Cuba Is Vaccinating Children As Young As 2 Years Old, First Country In The World To Do So

<p><strong>New Delhi: </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cuba has started to inoculate children as young as two years old, with Covid-19 vaccines developed by the country, the local government announced Monday.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">These vaccines &mdash; Abdala and Soberana &mdash; don&rsquo;t have the recognition from the World Health Organization yet, AFP reported. Clinical trials were done on minors before the country approved its use.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cuba is the first country in the world to vaccinate children from the age of two. The country of 11.2 million people aims to vaccinate all children before reopening schools, which have been mostly closed since March 2020, the report said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There is no internet in most Cuban homes. Education is being imparted through television programmes in the country. The government has announced that schools would gradually reopen in October and November this year, but only after all children have been inoculated.</span></p> <h3><strong>Cuban Vaccines Use Recombinant Protein Technology</strong></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cuba began its vaccination campaign for children last week, starting with those aged 12 years and above.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">On Monday, it started covering the 2-11 age group.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Vaccination for children above has started in several other countries, and trials are on so younger kids can be covered.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">On Monday, Chile approved the Chinese Sinovac for children aged 6-12.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the AFP report, the Cuban Covid-19 vaccines have not undergone any international or scientific peer review.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The vaccines, the first to be developed in Latin America, are based on &lsquo;recombinant protein technology&rsquo;, the report said. The same technology was used for the US&rsquo; Novavax and France's Sanofi shots too, and they are also awaiting WHO approval.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Recombinant vaccines do not require extreme refrigeration.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cuba currently has an active caseload of 38,092, while the total number of cases stands at</span><a href="https://ift.tt/3E6CmKH style="font-weight: 400;"> 704,675</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. It has seen a massive spike in cases in the last few months. Of the total 5,881 deaths recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, nearly half were in the last one month alone.</span></p>

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