CUBA STANDARD — Copa Airlines donated 100,000 syringes to support Cuba’s ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
The Panamanian airline made the donation through its Fundación Despega.
María Teresa Fariñas García, cargo coordinator for Copa in Cuba, told official news service ACN that Cuba coordinated the donation with the Cuban consulate in Panama; the syringes were flown to the island by Cubana de Aviación.
MediCuba Chief Operating Officer Rafael Cañete Hernández said the donation will “strengthen the logistics capacity of the vaccination system the country is developing at this moment”.
Solidarity organizations and friendly governments such as China, South Africa and Argentina have donated hundreds of thousands or syringes. While Cuba has ramped up manufacturing of its Abdala and Soberana 02 vaccine candidates, Cuban experts have predicted that a shortage of syringes and needles may present logistical bottlenecks.
Cuba’s “sanitary intervention” — the official term for mass vaccination that began in late May, even before clinical testing results of the vaccines were in — started at a rapid pace of tens of thousands of jabs daily, but it has slowed recently.
