Health

Cuba’s home-grown vaccines have massively cut covid-19 cases

Four months after hospitals collapsed in Cuba due to skyrocketing covid-19 case numbers, the country has rolled out its own vaccines and cases are down to 5 for every 100,000 people

By Luke Taylor

23 December 2021

A sign of the Cuban vaccine candidate Abdala against Covid-19 is seen in a car in Havana, on July 1, 2021. - Cuba is preparing to give the green light in a few days to one of its coronavirus vaccines, the first created in Latin America and a hope for the region facing a new wave of the pandemic. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE / AFP) (Photo by YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images) — Abdala is one of Cuba’s covid-19 vaccines
YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images

Four months after Cuba reported the world’s highest number of daily covid-19 infections per capita, and more than 9000 cases a day, it has driven the incidence of new cases down to double digits with its own vaccines.

The island reported 61 new daily infections on 21 December – 0.54 for every 100,000 people – as cases declined for the fourth consecutive month.

Experts had predicted that Cuba’s economic crisis would make it fertile ground for the coronavirus because basic medical products, such as covid-19 tests and face masks…