Havana, July 19 (RHC)-- Cuba is celebrating Children's Day this Sunday with the guarantee of their rights, especially universal and free access to health services and education.

The celebrations will not have the massive nature of previous years on this occasion, due to the limitations imposed by COVID-19, although Cuba keeps the epidemic under control and dedicates special care to the attention of children.

In this sense, President Miguel Díaz-Canel, when referring last Thursday before the Council of Ministers to the country's achievements in confronting the new coronavirus, stressed that it is "comforting and encouraging" that no child has died from the disease in Cuba.

In terms of health, the Caribbean nation is ranked 35th among the nations with the lowest infant mortality rate in the world, at five per thousand live births.

This is in addition to a survival rate of more than 99 percent in the first five years of life, which has been sustained for the past 20 years, according to statistics from the Ministry of Public Health.

The National Immunization Program also guarantees vaccination coverage of nearly 100 percent, including vaccines against 13 diseases -- six that remain eradicated.

In the area of education, last June UNESCO recognized the Caribbean nation's leadership in terms of the quality of teaching, inclusion, and in particular the integration of 99.5 percent of children under six into the educational system.

Cuba is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its Constitution protects this sector of the population, establishing the best interests of minors in decisions and actions that concern them.