As infections rise, Cuban doctors are fans of COVID jabs to boost Coronavirus pandemic News

Habanan, Cuba – There is a health clinic in every corner of Havana, each with a family doctor and nurse.

In recent weeks, these health workers have been visiting patients in the Cuban capital Sun – Warren-like buildings in which the whole family lives in a single bedroom – up to smart apartments in detailed decorative buildings, when memories of wealth appear in large windows overlooking the Florida Strait.

Residents have been told that the coronavirus vaccine has arrived and given appointments for the owners. This scene has been repeated throughout the city and, as long as there are enough syringes to deliver the doses, it will soon be repeated across the country.

In the story of the pandemic, Cuba begins this new chapter. After the virus is largely sustained in 2020, the number of infected patients is growing rapidly, with 2,698 new cases a day being registered on Saturday and an average of more than 2,000 a seven-day period. Cuba is facing the biggest rise in the Caribbean.

However, last week the country announced Abdala, One of the five vaccines created by Cuba in its laboratories – a tremendous achievement in 11 million countries with long-term disaster resources 92.28 percent efficiency. This compares to 95 percent of Pfizer-BioNTech, 95 percent of Moderna and 76 percent of AstraZeneca.

He claimed earlier this month another vaccine, Soberana-02, was 62 percent effective after two doses. On Thursday, local scientists said a booster would bring in between 85 and 95 percent (Abdala also comes in three shots).

Quotations remain hard on the heels of numbers, and can change in the face of new variations. Internally, vaccines have been tested with a population that has so far had no problems with a severe COVID-19 wave, and have not yet been taken to international testing.

“I have no reason to believe that there is fraud or manipulation,” said Amílcar Pérez Riverol, postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology at São Paulo State University in Brazil and a veteran of Cuban laboratories. “This is biotechnology and in the end, general vaccines will show how effective they are. But like all members of the scientific community, I would love to see the data. “

In Havana, where the population is increasingly concerned about the rate of infection, the results of its effectiveness have caused great joy. “After such a severe shortage of queues and food, it’s great to have something to celebrate,” said a woman who left the local doctor’s clinic last week.

The news again sparked applause at 9pm for Cuban health workers. The Cubans – who worship the health service – kept their daily applause for months until they were left under the strain of daily life. There is currently a shortage of food and medicine and rampant inflation. The number of infected patients is increasing.

‘Sovereign’ vaccines

At the beginning of the pandemic, the Cuban government saw its enormous health service, the “advantages” of authoritarian rule, and Fidel Castro’s opportunity to showcase the biotechnology industry that the country could always stand out.

Cuban current President Miguel Díaz-Canel He called the country’s laboratories what he called the “independent response to COVID-19”.

At the same time the economic crisis was developing as tourists disappeared and the economy shrank by 11 percent. While the government was struggling to pay its bills internationally, the U.S. tried to make it harder for Cubans abroad to send money home.

In November, pressure authorities opened the border and allowed people to enter. A day earlier Cuba had 27 new cases and the US 159,003. Soon the number in Cuba began to rise and on Sunday there were 13,213 active cases in the country (more than in the whole of 2020) and 1,253 deaths due to the virus.

In May, 33-year-old Marilyn Salazar Martinez heard that the Soberana-02 vaccine was being tested in her neighborhood in the Vedado district of Havana. “They were looking for people over 60, but I went to the doctor and they still agreed to take me.”

A man receives a jab at a vaccination center in Havana [Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters]

He said he did not know if he would be vaccinated or placebo. “I wanted to be able to get vaccinated earlier, but also to be involved in the search for a solution,” he told Al Jazeera.

Shortly after the second injection, the partner tested positive. “I also thought I was going to get infected,” he said. After he was admitted to the hospital, a doctor came and performed a PCR test on him, which was negative.

“Three weeks later, when I got home, they confirmed that I had been vaccinated,” he said. “There’s no way to find out if the lucky one or the vaccine prevented me from catching COVID, but since we live together it’s likely that it was a vaccine.”

Missing syringe

According to Cuban authorities, 2.2 million Cubans have received the first doses of vaccines, with three blows requiring less than one million. Cuba hopes to fully protect its population this year.

As families go to clinics or workplaces to get a family vaccine, a new problem has arisen: there is a growing concern about the lack of a syringe. Because these vaccines require three doses, Cuba’s need is greater than in other countries.

An international campaign has been launched to supply the island, led by the Cuban diaspora and international solidarity movements. Global Health Partners (GHP), a nonprofit New York team, has launched a campaign to address the shortage of what they say is 20 million syringes. “So far we have bought four million syringes. We expect to buy two million more, ”GHP vice president Bob Schwartz told Al Jazeera.

No one cares, however, about Cuba’s ability to put the vaccine in people’s arms. “Even at the beginning I knew it wasn’t going to spread the problem, because Cuba’s primary health care system is quite efficient,” Pérez Riverol said.

Gregory Biniowsky is a Canadian lawyer and longtime resident, and was vaccinated against Abdala at a school in Havana’s Old Square. “There were six medical staff there. The nurse said it could be flu-like symptoms and muscle aches, and that’s what I got. ”

Biniowsky believes that in addition to Cuba becoming the country that has received the most vaccines in Latin America in the next six months, there will be no reluctance about the vaccine seen in other countries, such as the US or Russia.

“That’s for three reasons,” he said. “One is a conspiracy movement in other countries, it’s not here. Then there is the strong belief in science. And the last thing is, I don’t think people will be given a chance. “

Cuba has eight doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, three of them in the United Kingdom or the United States. They know where the sick live.