The Nicaraguan government announced this Saturday that it will apply Cuban vaccines against Covid-19 to children aged 2 years and over and adolescents up to 17 years old, for a total of 2.1 million people, or 32.3% of the country’s population.
Nicaragua’s vice president, Rosario Murillo, informed through the official media that the Cuban vaccines will begin to be applied on the 20th of the month, when the first batch is expected to arrive.
“A total of 2,102,366 children and adolescents will be able to be vaccinated as of October 20”, declared Murillo, wife of the country’s president, Daniel Ortega, who insisted that vaccination will not be mandatory.
The first lady explained that the Ministry of Health has endorsed the emergency use of the Cuban vaccines, Abdala and Soberana 02, for three doses of each to be administered. Thus, Nicaragua joins other countries that already use immunizations against the coronavirus produced on the island, such as Iran, Venezuela and Vietnam.
Another 1.5 million doses will be delivered
Regarding the vaccination of adults, Murillo said that next week 1.54 million doses will be delivered through the Covax mechanism, with which they hope to increase coverage for this age group. Until now, the injections are only available for people over 30 years old.
The government had announced that it intended to vaccinate 2.8 million people aged 30 and over, out of a total of 6.5 million Nicaraguans. Last Thursday, however, it announced that it would vaccinate pregnant women and children over 12 with chronic diseases. Starting on the 11th, these people will be inoculated with Pfizer’s immunizing agent.
According to Nicaragua’s Ministry of Health, there have been 204 deaths from Covid-19 so far and 14,251 infections in the country so far. However, the independent network of physicians Observatório Cidadão Covid-19 reported 5,551 deaths from pneumonia and other symptoms related to the coronavirus, as well as 29,481 suspected cases of infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, data that are not recognized by the authorities.