Criticisms and complaints about the vaccination process in Ecuador 4:27
(CNN Spanish) -
One week after the start of the vaccination against covid-19 in Ecuador, criticism and complaints were fired for alleged irregularities in the administration of the first 8,000 doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
Associations of doctors and nurses, assembly members, the Ombudsman's Office and other instances, request the resignation of the Minister of Health, Juan Carlos Zevallos, on the grounds that he is not giving priority to the application of the vaccine to front-line personnel in the hospitals and elderly care centers as announced by the government.
Criticism increased after reports that Zevallos led the vaccination in a private condominium in the northeast of Quito over the weekend where older adults reside.
The minister said during an appearance before the National Assembly that "everyone has the right" and agreed in an interview with the newspaper
El Comercio
that several of his relatives live in that place.
Several assembly members have demanded political prosecution of the Minister of Health since Tuesday night.
Santiago Zúñiga, president of the Association of Postgraduate Doctors of Ecuador, told CNN that the private center where the vaccination took place over the weekend "is not a geriatric center" but a building of leased suites and apartments, and that the claim of physicians is not "a class war" but rather a "conflict of interest" and priorities when there are dozens of front-line staff members who demand to be vaccinated like other geriatric centers where older adults are cared for sick.
During the first days of the vaccination, the president of the board of directors of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute, Jorge Wated, reported that Social Security administrative personnel received the vaccine without being among the front-line workers and reported on the dismissal of these officials.
In addition, Wated announced an investigation to find out how the lists to apply the vaccine were made.
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The Ombudsman, Freddy Carrión, asked President Lenín Moreno to resign Minister Zevallos due to lack of transparency and conflict of interest in public management around the distribution and delivery of vaccines against covid-19.
The government's Communication Secretary, Caridad Vela, reported from Washington, where President Moreno is on a visit, that Zevallos has the support of the president and the entire cabinet.
"We all want a vaccine for our loved ones and what Ecuador has to understand is that we are all going to have it, we simply have to vaccinate some first, not with a preferential relationship."
Vela added that he had "no idea" when the second shipment of vaccine doses will arrive because he is in Washington.
According to the government, the first 86,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine planned for the pilot plan would arrive weekly until February and from the end of March the additional two million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine would begin to arrive.
On the other hand, this Tuesday the Quito Metropolitan Control Agency reported on the closure of a "clandestine clinic" that promised three doses of the vaccine against covid-19 and charged for the alleged vaccination.
The authorities proceeded to close this business and reiterated that the only authorized vaccination institution in Ecuador is the Ministry of Health.
Vaccination