With the creation of vaccines, medicines, and supplies to confront COVID-19 and a process of transformation in innovation and technology with government support, Cuba celebrates Science Day today.

Havana, Cuba.- On the occasion, Dr. Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, Minister of Science, Technology, and Environment (CITMA), highlighted the work of the sector during the past year to accompany the new government administration and the granting of the headquarters of the national event to the province of Havana.

That decision responds that the territory has the most significant number of science, technology, and innovation entities in the country with 86 research centers, 34 Innovation Development Units, 15 scientific and technological service centers, and six high-tech companies, five of them belonging to BioCubaFarma.

Among its main results in 2021, the Cuban capital hosted the development, scaling, and production of the immunogens Soberanas, designed by the Finlay Vaccine Institute, and the vaccine candidate Mambisa, from the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

As part of the celebrations for the Cuban Science Day, a modern astronomical observatory was inaugurated the day before, as a result of the collaboration agreement between the Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy (Iga) of the Citma with the Institute of Applied Astronomy and the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

MINISTER OF PUBLIC HEALTH CONGRATULATES CUBAN SCIENTISTS

Cuba's Public Health Minister José Ángel Portal congratulated the Caribbean nation's scientists, who responded with their talent to the health situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"You contribute daily to protect the health of our people from the most diverse scenarios," Portal stressed in a letter published on the website of the Ministry on the occasion of Cuban Science Day.

"From our institutes, university classrooms, modern laboratories with state-of-the-art technology, or our communities... each of their ideas and research has been essential to provide us with technological sovereignty, amid a complex epidemiological context," Portal stressed.

An indisputable milestone "that we cannot fail to recognize today is the development of our vaccines, which has enabled us to achieve a dizzying rate of immunization among our population, including pediatric immunization for children over two years of age" said the minister.

This is something achieved by a few nations globally and demonstrates the great potential of Cuba and its professionals, he said.

Doing science in Cuba will never cease to be a challenge when it comes to material resources. In the face of these unquestionable limitations, our researchers and scientists always know how to grow, and that is their best tribute to life, Portal stressed. (RHC)