Cuba finally starts commercial exports of its Abdala vaccine

Cuba has started commercial exports of its COVID-19 vaccines, sending consignments of its home-grown three-dose Abdala vaccine to Vietnam and Venezuela.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel declared the arrival of shots in Vietnam on his Twitter. The official Cubadebate News website stated the delivery included 900,000 doses purchased by Hanoi and 150,000 more donated from Cuba.

Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited Cuba last week and toured the labs producing the doses. He had announced an agreement to buy at least five million doses from Cuba.

Being two of the last five communist nations in the world, Cuba and Vietnam have managed long-standing relations.

The Cuba Center for Genetic Immunology and Biotechnology also stated that the first shipments of the Abdala shots were sent to Venezuela on the weekend.

Cuban Vice President Delcy Rodriguez announced in June that Venezuela had agreed to buy $ 12m worth of Cuban vaccine, although officials declined to say how many doses were involved.

Another Cuban-developed COVID-19 vaccine is being produced in Iran.

Cuba hopes to extend the export of its locally developed vaccines, and last week the World Health Organization asked them to approve what many countries require before importing vaccines.

Cuban scientists have said that vaccines are more than 90 percent effective against COVID-19, but — like all vaccines currently available — less against just infection.

However, on Monday, the Venezuela National Academy of Medicine expressed "deep concern" that the Cuban vaccine was "administered to Venezuelans", citing a lack of research on safety and efficacy.

Cuba aims to fully vaccinate 90 percent of its population by the end of November - a key step in opening up an economy that is heavily dependent on tourism.

Cuba's director of epidemiology, Francisco Duran, said Monday that the country of about 11 million people registered 860,799 COVID-19 cases and 7,279 deaths.

In mid-September, Havana started a vaccine campaign for children between the ages of two and 10, becoming one of the first nations to vote for vaccines for that age group.