Havana, December 30(RHC)-- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez visited several scientific institutions that during this challenging year 2021 have made significant contributions to the confrontation of the COVID-19 epidemic and the Health system.

The tour began at the headquarters of the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV).

Speaking at a modest ceremony, the Institute's deputy director, Yury Valdés Balbín, said that "in 7 months an old house, shaken by the passage of time, has become a cheerful, welcoming and beautiful setting, which also symbolizes the prosperity that a state institution can and should achieve".

Valdés Balbín explained that the idea of this beautiful transformation is to highlight the homeland and patriotism as the essence of an institution founded by Fidel; to raise the values and principles of Cuban science with its greatest exponent, the greatest of our scientists, Carlos J. Finlay; and to achieve all this in an advanced technological context, with high standards of the global vaccine industry, which happen to be the highest internationally demanded,

After recognizing the staff who excelled, the President of the Republic toured the refurbished building and highlighted its functionality and beauty. 

 "On the eve of the anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, it was a pleasure to visit the recently remodeled headquarters of the Finlay Institute, a center at the forefront of the creation of vaccines of the Soberana line, which have so successfully contributed to the country's fight against the pandemic," the President wrote.

"Here there is knowledge, commitment, wisdom, creative resistance, beauty, and in 2022 we are going for more," said the head of state after learning from the IFV's director-general Vicente Vérez Bencomo,  about other investments being made in various areas of the IFV, including its production plants.

Díaz-Canel also visited Cuba's Neurosciences Center, where its director Mitchell Valdés-Sosa briefed him on the projects they are carrying out.

Valdes mentioned the Ventipap, a non-invasive respiratory support system already registered for use; a vagus nerve stimulator for the treatment of epilepsy, which could predict the onset of seizures; and a Cuban cochlear implant.