Ana María Mari Machado, vice-president of the National
Assembly of People's Power addresses conference in Vienna.

Havana, September 8 (RHC)-- At the 5th World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments, held in Austria, Cuba insisted on the need for closer cooperation among countries to face the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ana María Mari Machado, vice-president of the National Assembly of People's Power, stressed how Cuba conceives health as a state of physical, mental and social well-being, and not only as the absence of disease or illness, and therefore, it is a fundamental human right and a responsibility of the State.

She highlighted the scientific capacity of the archipelago to create its  anti-COVID-19 vaccines, which will allow immunizing its entire population before the end of the year.

Machado evoked the altruism of Cuban health professionals who have formed 57 medical brigades to combat SARS-CoV-2 and have served in 40 countries and territories, including states of the European Union.

Contrary to this spirit of solidarity and humanism," she contrasted, "the Government of the United States has opportunistically and mercilessly intensified the policy of economic, commercial and financial blockade aimed at strangling our trade and preventing access to fuel, international currency and even to food, medicines and medical supplies essential to face the pandemic".

 She also expressed gratitude for the material support received in Cuba from several countries and stated that the people's health is a fundamental condition for achieving development.