Cuba Begins Inoculation Efforts With Homegrown Vaccine

On Monday, the small island nation of Cuba began its vaccination campaign, giving does of their homegrown shots to more than 150,000 frontline workers. While most of the world has been reliant on a few vaccine producers, Cuba has created their own that have all shown promise and have advanced through 3 stages of clinical trials. The country says that it will eventually sell or donate their vaccines to other nations and will comply with all international regulations.

The African Union, a continental union consisting of 55 member states in Africa, is set to receive shipments of the Janssen one shot vaccine. The two reached a deal to supply up to 220 million doses beginning in the fall, with the option of acquiring an additional 180 million doses of the vaccine. This comes at a time when the African Union has been experiencing a slot rollout and an uptick in cases caused by novel variants.

Lastly, Nepal has received a donation of 800,000 vaccine doses from China in order to help them restart their vaccine campaign after an issue with shipment delays from India. The country has seen 277,000 COVID-19 cases with 3,027 deaths attributed to the virus. The country hopes these vaccines will help in their efforts to control the spread.

Data Table per Our World in Data (March 29, 2021, 12 AM EST)

In the United States, more states are expanding their vaccine eligibility to all adults starting this week. 6 states expanded on Monday, with others following Tuesday and Wednesday. The increased eligibility starts as case numbers have been increasing all over the country.

Data Table per CDC COVID-19 Tracker (March 28, 2021, 6 AM EST)

For more information on COVID-19 vaccination research, distribution, and assessment, check out some of these recent Contagion stories:

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