CAMAGUEY.- More than 70,000 people from Camagüey received the first dose of Abdala, in a historic week for the province. Many, as survivors of a pandemic, will be able to tell their children and grandchildren that they were immunized with a vaccine candidate, fourth in effectiveness in the world, achieved by the science of an underdeveloped country that is also facing an intensified economic, commercial and financial blockade.

Until this Sunday, more than 70,000 people were vaccinated in the health intervention by risk groups and territories that began with the immunization of Leida González Girol, a patient at the clinic No. 3 of the East Health area of ​​the city of Camagüey, one of the the more than 200,000 city dwellers who must receive the three doses of the vaccine preparation.

Dr. Sonia Resik Aguirre, head of the Virology Department of the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine and head of this health intervention, explained to Adelante.cu that the most important thing is to continue to comply with the containment measures and thus take care of the vaccine candidate, whose certification has not been completed by the regulatory entity. She insisted on Abdala's safety, on the need to complete the three doses and on the urgency of vaccinating the entire population in the same period of time.

During the week, and to the extent that the required conditions were guaranteed, especially for patient safety, the more than 280 spaces were certified. Dr. Roberto Dair García de la Rosa, an official of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) and a member of the commission that advises the intervention in the province, explained that the most important thing was that they comply with the safe flow for entering and leaving the premises and guarantee physical distancing in the places designated for waiting, before and after vaccination.

“We hope that this would be a town festival, and that it helps to raise the immune level of the Camagüey's population. That does not mean that it is necessary to continue complying with the containment measures that the province has taken, essential for the final result, ”emphasized Lena López Ambrón, head of the National Immunization Program of the Minsap.

Dr. Sonia María González Vega, head of the Primary Health Care session and Principal Investigator of the health intervention with Abdala in Camagüey, clarified that interruptions in the electricity supply do not affect the composition of the vaccine, “to maintain the cold chain it only needs ten half-liter bottles of frozen water in the whole day. The bulbs do not sleep in the office, but in polyclinics where there are generators, therefore this does not represent a danger ”.

At the head of the repair and maintenance work in the rehabilitation room of the Julio Antonio Mella Health area, which is used as one of the vaccination centers, was Yennis León Mayedo, director of the Accommodation and Recreation Company and representative of the temporary group of work in the Mella Popular Council, who said that throughout the city the companies surrounding the family's medical offices were in charge of creating the conditions.

Shortly after 12:00 p.m. m. on Sunday, the doses of the vaccine candidate Abdala arrived at the Medicines Marketing Company (Encomed) in Camagüey, and that same afternoon the distribution in the nine health areas of the main municipality began.

It did not matter that it was Sunday afternoon, there were the girls and boys of Encomed ready to fulfill the most important task in recent years. Even a zero-water surprised them while they distributed the doses, but everything became insignificant with the wish that it came out well and on time.

Nor did it matter to the hundreds of residents that it was a weekend to prepare their vaccination sites. In all, a photo of Fidel; it cannot be otherwise when it was he who laid the foundations of the Abdalas and the Sovereigns, betting on Cuban science, just in the most difficult years of our economy.

Both in the family medical offices and in the alternative sites used as vaccination centers, several dentists share with the Nursing staff the task of inoculating, in order to attend between 80 and 100 people per day necessary to comply with the scheme.

Medicine students participate in health intervention. They are in charge of checking the temperature and pulse of the patients and ensuring that they have normal vital signs when they enter the infirmary. They also help with the disinfection of everyone who arrives, the seats located in the waiting area and the rest of the furniture.

Local artistic talent brightens up the waiting time after the injection, a contribution from the Provincial Directorate of Culture that helps reduce stress and the risk of reactions such as hypertension.

Not only students of medical sciences participate, those of the University of Camagüey Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz are also there, without aspiring to heroism. Its mission, according to Javier Cosío Borges, fourth year of Agronomy, consists of the computerization of the forms that contain the data of each immunized person.

Abdala multiplies our pride of being Cubans. This Abdala that today immunizes Camagüey, like Martí's young man, reminds us of the value of having a homeland, of having a country that over the obstacles thinks of his children.