Havana (AFP)

The Cuban vaccine candidate against Covid-19 has reached an efficiency of 62% after the injection of two of its three planned doses, an intermediate result which exceeds the 50% required by the WHO, announced on Saturday the laboratory which the has developped.

"We can report that we have reached 62% efficiency with the application of two doses of the vaccine (Soberana) 02", a "comforting" result because it takes into account the variants that are already circulating in the Caribbean country, said to the local press Vicente Verez, director of the Finlay Institute for Vaccines who designed the serum.

The World Health Organization requires at least 50% efficacy for a candidate to be accepted as a vaccine, he added.

"In a few weeks, we will have the final word on the effectiveness of the three doses, which we expect of course to be higher," he also said.

Cuba has been working for thirteen months on five candidate vaccines, two of which, Soberana 02 and Abdala, have completed the third and final phase of testing.

The results, evaluated by an independent committee of Cuban specialists, will be submitted to the regulatory authority to "make the official request for authorization for emergency use" of the vaccine in the coming weeks, said Yuri Valdez, deputy director of the institute.

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"We know that as a government we weren't able to put all the money and funding into it that the project needed, and yet we have world class results," the president said. Cuban Miguel Diaz-Canel.

The announcement comes as the island experiences a strong resurgence of the disease.

Since the start of the pandemic, it has recorded 166,368 cases, including 1,148 deaths.

The authorities launched an emergency health intervention in mid-May with the two vaccine candidates in the capital and several provinces.

Over 4.3 million doses of Soberana 02 and Abdala have been administered as of June 16.

About 2.1 million people received one dose, nearly 1.4 million two doses and nearly 794,000 three doses.

The government aspires that by August, 70% of the 11.2 million inhabitants will be vaccinated, and the entire population before the end of the year.

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Under an American embargo since 1962, Cuba began to develop its own drugs in the 1980s. Of the thirteen vaccines in its vaccination program, eight are locally produced.

© 2021 AFP