Cuba registers 1,129 new cases and seven Covid deaths (June 3)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Cuba registered on Friday 1,129 new cases of covid-19 and seven deaths, according to the daily report of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (Minsap).

The country, which has accumulated March 2020 146,696 positive cases and 992 deaths, has been suffering since January a third wave of contagions. It has not managed to reduce the number of daily cases to less than 1,000 despite the containment measures in force for months.

Among the positives of the last day, detected after processing 24,399 PCRs, there are 42 imported cases, and the rest are autochthonous.

There are 26,062 people hospitalized in hospitals and isolation centers: 5,798 active cases -56 in critical condition and 105 serious-, 4,025 with suspected symptoms and the rest under epidemiological surveillance.

Havana continues to lead with 455 new positive cases by provinces, followed by eastern Santiago de Cuba (132) and Holguin (73).

The capital city has not managed to curb the number of infections even though it has maintained restrictions for months, including a nighttime curfew and limited public transportation hours. Still, the shortage of food and basic products means that people have to go out on the streets and stand in long lines.

Health authorities apply in that territory and other at-risk areas a health intervention study with two of the most advanced vaccine candidates of the five developed by Cuba: Abdala and Soberana 02.

Given the difficult epidemiological situation in Havana, the Cuban government announced the day before that the intervention will be extended from the middle of this month to the entire population of that province – except for minors and exceptions due to risk pathologies – and will be carried out with Abdala, which has a shorter administration schedule (3 doses in 28 days) than Soberana 02 (3 doses in 56 days).

The authorities expect that by the end of July, all the capital inhabitants will have received the three doses of this vaccine candidate.

According to official data, more than one million people, out of a population of 11 million, have received at least one dose of these experimental formulations as part of the clinical trials and intervention studies being carried out in parallel to the health one.

Both potential vaccines are in the third and final phase of clinical trials but do not yet have drug registration or emergency use authorization.

The authorities hope to obtain it this June, once the results of the clinical trials are published, which would allow the start of the mass vaccination campaign.

They are also confident that they will exceed 50% efficacy based on the results obtained in the second test stage.

Cuba is not a member of the WHO Covax Mechanism created for middle and low-income countries to access vaccines, nor has it purchased them in the international market.