Cuba donates cargo of its anticovid vaccine to Syria

The Cuban government sent a shipment of its covid-19 vaccines to Syria on Friday as a donation, authorities from both countries reported.

"Appreciation, appreciation and gratitude, on behalf of the Syrian Arab Republic for its kind initiative to send the anti-coronavirus vaccines in the form of donations to our country," said the Syrian ambassador to Cuba, Idris Mayya, according to a translator of his intervention in Arab.

During the ceremony, at the Havana international airport, the number of donated doses was not reported.

The Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), the company that produces the Abdala vaccine, reported in a tweet the donation of 120,000 doses.

The cargo packages were also labelled with the brand names of the Soberana 02 and Soberana plus vaccines.

Teresita González, interim minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, referred to the "unfair and unequal" distribution of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she said, has "caused great uncertainty" in the world.

"Cuba and Syria are peoples attacked and harassed by imperialism, but they do not yield in the defence of their sovereignty and their right to exist as free and independent nations," González said.

The island has three vaccines of its own development and production: Abdala, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus, whose vaccination schedule is three doses.

Despite the fact that none of its vaccines is recognized by the WHO, Cuba has immunised 86.7% of its 11.2 million inhabitants, while more than two million have the fourth booster application.

The country, which recorded its most critical moment between July and September 2021, managed to control the spread of the virus, with 972,513 infections and 8,325 deaths since the first cases occurred in March 2020.