14ymedio, Havana, 11 February 2022 — Starting Monday, the Cuban government will enable a digital certificate of vaccination against covid-19. This was emphasized by Miguel Díaz-Canel this Friday, after the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, made it public this Thursday at the daily meeting on the control of the pandemic.
It is an “important step in the transformation of this sector, which calls for a revolution in the digitization of all its processes,” the government announced in a tweet.
The day before, Portal Miranda explained that the virtual card will be launched on February 14, in an “initial stage” that could be considered “a test,” and it will be available on the Ministry’s website. Users will be able to download the document on their mobile phones and print the certificates of vaccination.
The Minister said that those who can’t access their card “because they still aren’t ready owing to some territorial matters” should direct themselves to their health centers “to ask for the digitized card.”
The platform has been developed by a team from the University of Informatic Sciences and took as a reference the digital passports of other countries, the Cuban government said last year when it announced the idea.
The authorities say that ’the digitization of the immunization process has already reached around 80% of the population that is completely vaccinated.”
According to official figures, 88% of the 11.2 million inhabitants of the island, among them almost 2 million minors between the ages of 2 to 19, have received the complete program of immunization with some of the Cuban formulas — Soberana 02, Abdala and Soberana Plus — and some 5.1 million have received the booster.
These are vaccines, however, still have not been recognized by the World Health Organization, which is required in other countries in order to validate the digital certificate of vaccination. The WHO list of the vaccines that are being evaluated around the world indicates that they haven’t received the pertinent information for the Cuban vaccines.
In a recent report, Cuba Archive says that there is the possibility that the Regime will obtain the next “emergency approval” from the WHO “for at least one and up to three of its vaccines.”
“It’s not clear how far the vaccine candidates are from being approved by the WHO, since the information in official Cuban media is scarce and contradictory,” argues the nonprofit organization from its headquarters in Miami, “but an unexpected announcement about what Cuban hopes will happen is in line with Cuba’s modus operandi.
“If the international organization authorizes approval,” says Cuba Archive, “the number of potential buyers for these vaccines will probably increase considerably” which, they denounce, “will greatly strengthen the Cuban dictatorship.”
Translation by Regina Anavy
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