COVID-19 pandemic in Cuba
The COVID-19 pandemic in Cuba was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was confirmed to have spread to Cuba on 11 March 2020 when three Italian tourists tested positive for the virus.[2]
Background[edit]
On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.[3][4]
Cuba faces multiple domestic challenges in its response to the ongoing pandemic. Health professionals are facing challenges including shortages of medical supplies, poor sanitary conditions, and low wages. Cuba also has one of the oldest populations in the Americas and one quarter of the population is considered at-risk. Additionally, Cuba's economy is suffering due to the global decrease in tourism amid the pandemic. As a consequence, the government began increasing centralization of the economy in an effort to prevent a deeper economic crisis like the one experienced by the country after the end of the Cold War.[5]
Cuba's policy of "medical internationalism" has played a prominent role in the country's response to the COVID-19 crisis. Cuba sent medical personnel to the hardest-hit Italian wealthy region of Lombardy,[6] as well as Angola and a dozen Caribbean states including Suriname.
Cuba engaged effective COVID-19 preventive measures, and despite the concurrent economic crisis and shortages of consumer products, in July 2020 officials reported that during the first wave of the pandemic the country's population suffered only minimal losses. Regular testing, wearing of face masks, and health visits by nursing professionals kept the reported case loads and mortality rates lower than in most countries of the Americas.[7]
In mid-July 2021, Cuba experienced the first real wave of infections when the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant spread throughout the nation. Subsequently, demonstrations took place in a number of cities when thousands took to the streets protesting against COVID-related restrictions. The island is suffering from an acute shortage of consumer goods and medical supplies during a severe economic downturn.
Cuba manufactures two COVID-19 vaccines, at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and Finlay Institute. As of 31 August 2021 about 75 million doses had been produced.[8]
Vaccination[edit]
While the Cuban government initially aimed to achieve widespread vaccination solely with homegrown vaccines, it later went on to use the Sinopharm BIBP vaccine as well.[31][32] Cuba has developed two vaccines that have entered phase III trials worldwide.[33][34] The vaccines Soberana 02 and Abdala, are being used for a mass vaccination campaign that aims to vaccinate 1.7 million Cubans in Havana.[35] From the beginning of the campaign vaccine hesitancy seemed to be low, as thousands of Cubans were vaccinated voluntarily as part of clinical studies and 150,000 health care workers got vaccinated as part of an "interventional study".[35] The US embargo against Cuba significantly slowed down the process of developing vaccines, as it restricted the medical equipment the island could import. Some Cuban research teams relied on only one spectrometer, which is a machine that can analyse a vaccine's chemical structure.[36] In spite of their relatively slow development process, Cuba aims to manufacture 100 million doses of Soberana 02 in 2021 to cover its population and to export the surplus.[36] On June 21, 2021, Cuba reported that its Abdala vaccine is 92.28% effective against COVID-19.[37]
Widespread vaccination has been limited by a lack of syringes, which the country does not produce, and vaccine doses.[38][32][39] In July 2021, representatives of the humanitarian organisation Global Health Partners announced the successful donation of six million syringes to Cuba for their COVID-19 vaccination campaign. The donation was financed by a coalition of American organisations against the American embargo on Cuba, CODEPINK, The People’s Forum, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Democratic Socialists of America, and the Cuban-American groups No Embargo Cuba Movement and Puentes de Amor.[40] Cuba had already received around 380,000 syringes and needles in June 2021, donated by Cuban residents in Argentina and other aid organisations.[41]
According to Cuba's state news agency, by November 2021 8,679,636 people in Cuba, 77.6 percent of the population, were fully vaccinated.[42]