(CNN) — The Cuban government began vaccinating children as young as two against COVID-19, the island’s state media reported, in an attempt to get the children back to classrooms.
Face-to-face education was supposed to have restarted on Monday, but was canceled as the number of coronavirus cases increased in Cuba.
While other countries have said they will vaccinate children, Cuba is believed to be the first to administer coronavirus vaccines to young children.
Instead of going to school, children watch educational programming on television for hours every day. The home internet remains a rarity on the island run by the Communist Party. Most face-to-face classes were suspended during the pandemic.
Archive image. Pedro Montaño holds his three-year-old daughter, Roxana, while she is vaccinated against covid-19 with the local Soberana Plus vaccine, on August 23, 2021 at the Juan Manuel Márquez hospital in Havana, as part of a study by the vaccine in children and adolescents. (Credit: ADALBERTO ROQUE / AFP via Getty Images)
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In September, Cuba declared that its homegrown vaccines they were safe for children as young as two years old.
Early in the pandemic, Cuban officials announced that they would work on developing their own vaccines, rather than relying on other countries for the drugs.
Cuban scientists say their Cuban-made vaccines are safe and effective, but so far they have provided little data to outside observers. Cuba has said it will seek WHO approval for its vaccines.
Vaccine against covid-19 in Cuba
To date, according to the Cuban Ministry of Health, more than four million people have been fully vaccinated. The government has not said how many children have been vaccinated, but said the government’s pediatric vaccination campaign began this week in Cienfuegos province, where the health system has faced severe shortages with a sharp increase in new cases and deaths.
The Cuban government said it hoped to vaccinate more than 90% of the population of 11.2 million people before reopening international borders in mid-November.
Initially, the government said it would focus on vaccinating healthcare workers, the elderly and the worst affected areas. But after an increase in childhood infections believed to be caused by the delta variant, the government announced that it would also prioritize vaccinating young children.
“With the increase in positive cases of covid-19 in children, it is necessary for the family to protect itself more and thus protect our children and adolescents,” said the chief epidemiologist of the island, Dr. Francisco Durán García.
To date, Cuba has recorded 6,056 deaths from the coronavirus, but authorities recently admitted that the number could be much higher.
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