Cuba has vaccinated more of its citizens against COVID-19 than most of the world’s largest and richest nations, a milestone that will make the poor, communist-run country a test case as the highly contagious Omicron variant begins to circle the globe.
Cuba has vaccinated over 90 percent of its population with at least one dose, and 83 percent of the population is now fully inoculated, placing it second globally behind only the United Arab Emirates among countries of at least one million people, according to official statistics compiled by ‘Our World in Data.’
Unlike its Latin America neighbours who waited for wealthier countries to develop vaccines, Cuba took the initiative and developed its own. Infections and deaths from COVID-19 have plunged on the island in recent weeks, falling to less than 1 percent of their peak on Aug. 22, when fewer than half its citizens were vaccinated. Nearly all of Cuba’s children aged 2 to 18 have now been vaccinated with home-grown vaccines.
Schools have reopened and foreign tourists are again welcome. Hospitals and morgues, overflowing in August, appear to be operating at pre-pandemic levels.
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