Vietnam approves emergency use of Cuba's Covid vaccine

The Abdala vaccine, of which the technical name is CIGB-66, is developed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

The vaccine employs a traditional approach by using a part of the spike protein, which the virus uses to bind to human cells, to build up the immune reaction.

Cuba approved emergency use of the Abdala vaccine on July 9 after manufacturers announced in June that the vaccine was more than 92 percent effective when three doses were given.

Abdala has made the eighth Covid-19 vaccine approved for emergency use in Vietnam aside from the U.K.’s AstraZeneca, the U.S.’s Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, Russia’s SputnikV, China’s Sinopharm and the UAE’s Hayat-Vax.

More than 33 million of the nation’s 96-million population have been vaccinated, with over 6.18 million getting two doses.