The final results of the vaccination with the combined scheme of Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus -both developed by the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV)- in children between two and 11 years of age in Cuba, during the infectious wave of the Omicron variant of SARS-COV-2, showed an effectiveness of more than 80%, the institution said on Twitter.
According to the Preprint of the results, after a regression discontinuity study, shared by the IFV, 1,098,817 fully vaccinated children between two and 11 years of age and 98,342 unvaccinated one-year-old children were included in the study.
During the 24-week Omicron infectious wave, 7,003 symptomatic COVID-19 infections were detected in the vaccinated group, and about 3,577 in the unvaccinated, the Preprint referenced.
The effectiveness of the vaccines against symptomatic COVID-19 infection was found to be similar in children aged two to four years, and in children aged five to 11 years, with 83.8% and 82.3%, respectively.
The article also showed that the effectiveness against severe symptomatic infection was 97 % in the two to four year-old group and 95 % in the five to 11 year-old group.
It was also shown that the efficacy against infection did not diminish over time.
The Omicron variant spread most strongly in the country in late 2021 and early 2022. However, thanks to the high vaccination rates already available to the Cuban population, the incidence of the disease, in terms of number of infections and severity, did not reach the preceding levels reached during the spread of the Delta variant.
After the clinical trials were rigorously carried out between September and November 2021, a massive anti-COVID-19 vaccination campaign was carried out in Cuba, in pediatric ages between two and 18 years old, the first of its kind in the world, with a heterologous scheme of two doses of Soberana 02 and a third of Soberana Plus.
More than 1,800,000 children and adolescents nationwide were immunized in a staggered manner (first the age group between 12 and 18 years, and then those between 2 and 11 years).
The pediatric immunization campaign demonstrated the safety of both Cuban vaccines because, after applying more than five million doses, no serious adverse effects were reported.
Translated by ESTI
