Cuba will take the phase 3 clinical trials as the first country amongst in South American continent. Cuba kept very low Covid-19 cases compared with other South American countries before reopening to the travelers last November. At least 44,000 people will take this phase 3 trial, according to NPR.

Cuba has been independently developing the Covid-19 vaccine. Dagmar Garcia Rivera, the research director at the Finlay Vaccine Institute in Havana stated that one of five vaccine candidates, Soberana 2 is to be very effective and entering the final stage of clinical trials.

A second vaccine candidate, Abdala has entered a phase 3 trial. Cuba is a self-sustaining country that never asked for any help from WHO or multinational corporations. Normally vaccine development takes a decade or more. Eduardo Ojito, the head of the Cuban Center for Molecular Immunology proudly announced that by the end of summer, all Cuban will be immunized enough doses with the Soverana 2.

Ojito stated that “We are preparing to produce between one and two million doses each month, and the country is on track to have 1 million doses available in April.” The Cuban government has started to distribute the vaccine to Iran, Mexico, and Venezuela.

Helen Yaffe, a specialist at the University of Glasgow, wrote about the country’s pharmaceutical sector and its previous success in developing another vaccine, such as cancer vaccine. Yaffe states there’s talk about offering vaccines to the tourists who enter the country at the airport upon arrival in Havana.

The Cuban government would provide the vaccine to international tourists and be open to international tourism again if this phase 3 vaccine trials succeed.