HAVANA – Cuba’s Abdala Covid-19 vaccine candidate has shown “efficacy” of more than 92% after three doses, said its maker yesterday, though it did not specify whether this is measured against infection, disease or death.
Cuba is working on five coronavirus vaccines, and last month started immunising its population using two of them yet to complete clinical trials.
Yesterday, the BioCubaFarma laboratory tweeted that Abdala – one of the two already in use – “shows an efficacy of 92.28% in its three-dose scheme”.
The World Health Organisation has set a 50% efficacy threshold for Covid-19 jabs to offer protection against the virus.
The announcement comes two days after authorities said Soberana 2, the other three-dose shot being developed in Cuba, is 62% effective after the first two shots.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel welcomed the news as an achievement that “will multiply pride” in the communist island nation.
Cuba has been relatively unscathed by the outbreak, but has seen a sharp increase in cases recently, registering one of its worst days yesterday with 1,561 infections in 24 hours. To date, it has recorded just over 169,000 cases and 1,170 deaths.
Under United States sanctions, Cuba has a long tradition of making its own vaccines, dating back to the 1980s.
Nearly 80% of its vaccines are produced in the country, and it hopes to come up with the first locally produced coronavirus shot in Latin America. – AFP, June 22, 2021
