After the analyzes carried out jointly with several entities responsible for this task, the Cuban Ministry of Public Health decided to allocate the second anti-COVID-19 vaccination booster to people 50 years of age and older —a range previously conceived from the 1970s—after evaluating that it is possible to speed up the immunization process throughout the country.

Cubadebate reported that Dr. Ileana Morales Suárez, director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Minsap, announced the news this Tuesday in a meeting held at the Palace of the Revolution with experts and scientists involved in science and technological innovation activities for the confrontation with the COVID-19.

At the meeting, headed by the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez; as well as by the member of the Political Bureau and prime minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz; and the deputy prime ministers, Inés María Chapman Waugh, and Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, Morales, Suárez explained that with this new age scheme, more than four million people will receive the booster dose.

The director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Minsap announced that this weekend the booster doses will also begin to be administered to risk groups.

Regarding the scope of such a process, President Díaz-Canel commented that "now our success in maintaining" the encouraging figures lies in "maintaining the level of immunization that we have, which has to be based on reinforcements."

The Cuban president shared the idea based on the evidence that if the world does not resolve the situation of the epidemic "we will continue to be exposed": "In other words," he stressed, "we cannot lose the systematic nature of the reinforcement because, if not, we will return to a complex situation”.

Data that illustrates the situation of humanity in the face of COVID-19, and how much the Island has achieved in its confrontation with the pandemic, shared Dr. Ileana Morales Suárez, in a point that dealt with the updating of the anti-COVID-19 vaccination strategy. in Cuba.

For this analysis, the expert preferred to start with inequities, because she, she said, "when you look at the line of low-income countries, against what high-income countries have achieved, the differences are colossal."

A graph served as support for him to talk about the number of people in the world who have not been vaccinated against the new coronavirus. Pointing out on a color map how it is that the planet has been hit by the omicron variant, the doctor stated that if the world population had been vaccinated as the Island and other countries are, the gigantic spike that came from the disease would not have produced.

The reality is far from the previous premise, and it is sad: as the expert detailed from parts of this Monday, only 14 countries had more than 85% of their population vaccinated; Some thirty nations have less than ten percent in this health condition; and there are 42 countries that have less than 20%. Another piece of information shared by Ileana Morales speaks for itself of inequity: 95 countries —out of a total of 194 in the world— have less than 50% of their population vaccinated.

"It fills us all Cubans with pride," he argued, that the Island leads the list of countries according to the number of vaccines administered per hundred people: "We led that figure a long time ago, but what most catches our attention —added the doctor— it is the difference we have against the world average”. The world average, she emphasized, does not reach 148, while Cuba has a figure that exceeds 320.

"In terms of mortality, Ileana Morales pointed out, we are already at the minimum possible, which was what Professor Guinovart predicted about six months ago." And then she showed a sheet that "is the one we like the most, the one we feel most satisfied with," according to which pediatric vaccination has reached 1,909,980 children in Cuba (97.8% of the total).

They should be vaccinated, she said, 1,954,000, and a little more than children: that number of those who have not been vaccinated represents sick children, or who have presented some health situation. Already the booster dose in this group of the population, detailed the doctor, "goes by 61.3%".

Regarding the number of millions of doses administered throughout the country, the expert recalled that administering 36.3 million in one year "has been a very strong effort." And we continue…, she stated: “We want to continue protecting the Cuban population, as you (she addressed President Díaz-Canel) have repeatedly indicated to us.”

Extensive information at the meeting was offered by Dr.C. Pedro Mas Bermejo, which dealt with the study of the effectiveness of the Abdala vaccine in the pediatric population of Cuba. The also vice president of the Cuban Society of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said that “since July of last year we have been evaluating the effectiveness of the Abdala vaccine, and here are the results”: 94% effective for severe disease; and a 93.69 for death. These are results, he asserted, thanks to which the number of deaths decreased tremendously.

He likewise stressed that regarding the effectiveness of the Abdala vaccine in the prevention of asymptomatic disease, in patients between 16 and 18 years of age, the percentage is 98.9. That effectiveness is "extremely high," said the expert.

For all the effort that Cuba has made to save lives against COVID-19, Dr.C. Raúl Guinovart Díaz, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing at the University of Havana, was able to affirm, based on forecast models, that what is expected is that the epidemic will remain under control in the country during the coming weeks, concludes Cubadebate.