Status: 07.09.2021 8:06 am
Socialist Cuba was the first country in the world to begin vaccinating children aged two and over – with its own vaccines. The country wants to open its borders in November. Then 90 percent of the people should be vaccinated.
Cuba became the first country in the world to start vaccinating young children with coronavirus. On Monday, authorities in Cienfuegos province started vaccinations for the age group of two to eleven year olds. The children receive the corona vaccines Abdala and Soberana, which were developed in Cuba, but are not recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO). Children from the age of twelve have been vaccinated since Friday.
Schools were closed for the longest time
Because of the pandemic, Cuba’s schools have been closed for most of the time since March 2020. The new school year began on Monday – on television because only a few households in the communist-ruled Caribbean state have an Internet connection. The authorities are planning to gradually reopen the schools from October, if by then all children and adolescents eligible for a corona vaccination have received the vaccination.
An intensive vaccination campaign is currently underway for the people in Cuba. By the end of the month, all residents who can receive protection should be vaccinated at least once with one of the three substances produced in the country itself.
Opening of the borders from mid-November
Cuba assumes that 90 percent of the population will be vaccinated by mid-November – from November 15th, the borders will gradually open. This emerges from a letter published by the Cuban Ministry of Tourism, Mintur. Until then, the hygienic protection regulations for entry are to be made more flexible.
The Cuban economy has been badly damaged by the loss of tourism revenue due to the pandemic. The tourism industry generates around ten percent of the gross national product of the socialist island state.
With the highest incidence in Latin America
The spread of the highly contagious Delta variant has brought Cuba’s health system to its limits. Of the total of around 5,700 deaths from the pandemic, almost half were registered in August alone. Over the past few weeks, 8,000 to 9,000 people have become infected every day. This makes Cuba one of the Latin American countries with the highest incidence.