More than 350 people from risk groups in Las Tunas will receive this week the first dose of the Abdala anti-COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Nilvia Agüero Batista, coordinator of the expert committee that controls the process here, informed 26 Newspaper.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- Patients from the Clodomira Acosta Ferrals psychiatric hospital, from the Psycho Pedagogical Medical Center, and nephropathy patients who require hemodialysis will be vaccinated; all of them vulnerable and in greater danger of becoming ill.

The reception of the bulbs, in charge of the Wholesale Marketing and Distribution of Medical Supplies (EMCOMED) base business unit, was carried out successfully without missing the indications, which include maintaining the cold chain between two and eight degrees Celsius.

EMCOMED workers have not stopped delivering medicines and supplies to the health facilities and the local pharmacy network; mainly those used in the treatment of the patients infected with the new coronavirus, including Interferon, Biomodulin T, reagents, analgesics, and antibiotics reserved for these patients.

From this Tuesday, the distribution of "Abdala" to the different involved centers will begin, to start the health intervention before Friday, she said. During the administration of the three doses, in an interval of 28 days (zero, 14, and 28), the established medical protocols must be followed.

Meanwhile, Agüero Batista assured, the province is getting ready to immunize the rest of its population, which will initially prioritize those over 60 years of age. Just over 500 clinical sites will operate here, the family doctor's offices most of them, to ensure that process.

So far more than 26,500 people from Las Tunas, belonging to the Health sector and others exposed to danger, have been favored.

"Abdala", produced by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, showed 92.28 percent efficacy in the phase III trial, much higher than the requirement of the World Health Organization to declare a candidate as an anti-COVID-19 vaccine.

The start of this health mission is eagerly awaited in Las Tunas, which aims to include more than 397 thousand people, especially now that the numbers of positive for the disease have skyrocketed, exceeding a thousand cases in the last 15 days.