Maduro says Venezuela will produce Cuban Covid-19 vaccine

CARACAS: Venezuela hopes to produce two million doses per month of a Cuban coronavirus vaccine, President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday. The South American country will also take part in Phase 3 trials for the Abdala vaccine produced by its socialist ally. “We’ve signed an agreement to produce in our laboratories... two million vaccines a month of the Abdala vaccine... for August, September, approximately,” said Maduro in a television address. Cuba has developed four vaccines that are in various stages of clinical trials. The island nation has already started vaccinating its health care workers with its two vaccines still in the third phase of clinical trials. One of those is Abdala, which is being given to 124,000 health care workers, while 48,000 volunteers are taking part in a parallel Phase 3 clinical study. Should it be approved, Abdala would be the first Covid-19 vaccine entirely developed and produced in Latin America.