Ecuador's Health Minister Juan Carlos Zevallos explains the vaccination process against covid-19 with a volunteer, on January 21 in Guayaquil, Ecuador.Gerardo Menoscal / Getty
The position most questioned in the pandemic and the one that has most resisted public criticism left the Government of Ecuador on Friday.
The Minister of Health, Juan Carlos Zevallos, presented his resignation due to the umpteenth controversy over the vaccination plan against covid-19.
One day after announcing that the country will have access to one million Sinovac vaccines between March and April and it was discovered that a renowned radio journalist had received his dose without being part of the official vaccination plan, Zevallos leaves the ministry and leaves without being transparent the one that is already called the VIP list of vaccinated.
“There are those who only see mistakes.
I respect that opinion.
I prefer to remember the minister who accepted the difficult task of managing the country's health in the worst health crisis that Ecuador and the world are experiencing, ”Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno said goodbye to him in a message on Twitter.
In the resignation letter, published by the president himself, the outgoing minister defends his management.
“I deliver a functional country that anticipated the right decisions, which in many moments became benchmarks for the region.
Health policies will allow that until the end of his Government more than two
millions of people are vaccinated, ”wrote Zevallos.
The now former minister took office on March 21, a week after Ecuador went into quarantine.
Her predecessor had left office criticized for lack of protective materials for doctors and PCR tests.
Thousands of deaths from the start of the pandemic in Guayaquil passed through his management, with dozens of them piled up and unattended in the streets due to the funeral crisis that occurred after the national curfew in March.
There are still 62 people who died a year ago and who have not been able to be identified or buried.
Zevallos is also being investigated by the Prosecutor's Office for alleged influence peddling due to the distribution of the few vaccines against covid-19 that began to arrive in the country in January.
It had been announced that there would be more than 50,000 in a first shipment, but 8,910 of Pfizer landed, which should have been distributed exclusively among front-line medical personnel and those over 65 who reside in geriatric centers.
Later, 16,500 arrived and this week a third batch of 17,500 doses.
According to official plans, mass vaccination should begin in March after completing the first phases of immunization for high-risk personnel.
Only the government's willingness to buy now vaccines manufactured in China, despite initial reluctance, will speed up the process.
Shortages were followed by scandal.
In the first days of vaccination, Minister Zevallos himself, his mother, and President Lenín Moreno received a dose.
“I did it in my capacity as Minister of Health, in my capacity as a doctor and in my capacity as a son.
I am very sorry and deeply sorry that my presence has been perceived in a negative way;
whether or not this was political recklessness on my part, I don't know, I'm not a politician, I don't understand political, ”he justified himself days later.
The press and citizens have constantly asked the Health portfolio to be transparent about the list of preferential vaccinates, a request that was always rejected on the grounds of confidentiality in the data of those immunized.
The entire government cabinet came out to defend the minister.
An "extraordinary civil servant", they repeated from the presidency.
His replacement has not yet been named.
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