HAVANA, Dec 1, Reuters -- Cuban health authorities said that researchers in the communist-run country are upgrading its homegrown COVID vaccines to protect against the new Omicron variant.
In mid-November, the Caribbean island nation, whose economy is dependent on tourism, loosened entry requirements due to a successful inoculation drive with domestically developed vaccines. Both deaths and infections from COVID-19 have dropped to 2% or less of their peaks, according to a Reuters tally.
On Tuesday, Vicente Verez, director of Cuba's Finlay Institute for Vaccines, said it was clear that Cuba's Soberana vaccine would continue to provide a certain level of protection against Omicron, but said the extent of that protection was still uncertain.
As of last week, we decided to develop a Soberana Plus variant with the Omicron RBD protein, Verez said, referring to the receptor binding domain RBD, a key part of the virus that is on its spike. We have already started it, and that protein is being built at the moment. Some global vaccine manufacturers, including BioNTech 22 UAy. DE have expressed a guarded belief that their vaccines would offer strong protection against Omicron. Moderna MRNA.O has raised the possibility of a material drop in protection. It is not yet clear whether Omicron is more transmissible than other variants, or if it causes more severe disease.
Cuba has a large biotech sector for a country of its size, partly in a bid for sovereignty, given the crippling U.S. sanctions. It has made vaccine available to several of its allies, including Iran, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Cuba has yet to detect the Omicron variant, but earlier this week announced it would tighten restrictions on passengers from certain African countries beginning Dec. 4 due to the new variant.