Cuba to supply its homegrown vaccine to Vietnam

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) – Cuba will supply its homegrown vaccines to Vietnam as the Southeast Asian nation witnesses a surge in COVID-19 cases, battering the country’s health infrastructure and economy.

Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel, also the leader of the Communist Party of Cuba, told his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc that Cuba will supply a large quantity of Abdala COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam until the end of this year.

He added Cuba is willing to send experts to “transfer vaccine production technology” to the Southeast Asian nation, daily Vietnam News reported on Tuesday.

In a phone call on Monday night, the two leaders discussed bilateral relations and cooperation amid the pandemic.

Earlier, Vietnam provided rice to help Cuba overcome difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vietnam has witnessed an unprecedented surge in coronavirus infections in the recent past, triggering strict restrictions. The country has reported 358,456 COVID-19 cases, including 8,666 deaths.

Vietnam’s largest Ho Chi Minh city has emerged as an epicenter of the Delta variant, triggering the deployment of soldiers on streets to halt the movement of people in order to stem the spread of the infection.

Meanwhile, Cuba has reported 592,619 virus cases and 4,618 deaths.