Scandal in Peru: Minister of Health has resigned and is the fifth leader in the region to resign during the pandemic

The Minister of Health of Peru, Pilar Mazzetti resigned on Friday amid a political storm following complaints that former President Martín Vizcarra had been vaccinated against covid-19 months before he began vaccination in the country.public television reported.

“Dr Pilar Mazzetti resigned from his post as Minister of Health after presenting a letter to President Francisco Sagasti”, TV Peru, the public broadcaster, said on its website, but the government has remained silent so far.

Mazzetti’s successor, who would be sworn in on Saturday according to local media, He will be the fifth Minister of Health since the outbreak of the pandemic in Peru 11 months ago. He is due to take office as the country faces the onslaught of the second wave of the pandemic, with a record 14,333 patients with covid-19 in its hospitals, according to an official report.

The political storm that led to Mazzetti’s resignation erupted on Thursday when a Lima newspaper reported that Vizcarra was vaccinated against COVID-19 in October, weeks before he was impeached by Congress during an indictment by blitzkrieg.

Vaccination in the country has just started on Tuesday and is aimed for the moment at health personnel.

The former People’s President (2018-2020), who is seeking a seat in Congress in the April 11 elections, defended himself by saying he had volunteered for the clinical trial of China’s Sinopharm vaccine in the country , like thousands of others. Peruvians.

Local media had said the Peruvian Congress – the same one that ousted Vizcarra – was preparing to pass a motion of no confidence against Mazzetti, forcing interim president Francisco Sagasti to replace her.

Mazzetti had told Congress on Thursday that he had “no knowledge” of the former president’s case. “I was also not informed that Mr. Martín Vizcarra received a vaccine, him, his wife or another relative” insured.

Mazzetti, a 64-year-old doctor specializing in neurology, had been appointed health officer by Vizcarra on July 15, 2020. She had a week-long hiatus in November during Manuel Merino’s short-lived government, and was again named. to lead the ministry through Sagasti.

She made a critical evening of Vizcarra on Thursday by stating that “in order not to skew the results of the clinical trial” of the vaccine, those who had the ability to decide about it should not participate.

Peru has 1,220,748 confirmed cases of covid-19 (+8,439 on the last day) and 43,255 deaths (+ 210), according to the ministry’s report. Of the total infected, 1,130,923 people have recovered.

New infections and deaths quadrupled from the last week of December, but did not reach the highs of the second week of August, when Peru was facing the worst phase of the first wave.

Mazzetti had headed the portfolio of Health in 2004-2006 in the government of Alejandro Toledo, then for seven months in 2006-2007 Minister of the Interior in the second term of the late President Alan García.

(With information from AFP)

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