LIMA, Peru (AP) – Peru’s foreign minister resigned on Sunday amid an uproar over government officials being secretly vaccinated against coronavirus before the country recently received 1 million doses for health professionals facing a resurgence of the pandemic.
President Francisco Sagasti confirmed that Elizabeth Astete resigned and told local television channel America that Peruvians should be “indignant and angry at this situation that threatens the enormous effort of many Peruvians working on the front lines against COVID”.
The scandal broke out Thursday when former President Martín Vizcarra, who was dismissed by Congress on November 9 for a corruption complaint, confirmed a newspaper report that he and his wife had secretly received vaccines from Chinese state pharmaceutical company Sinopharm in October. Health Minister Pilar Mazzetti resigned on Friday after lawmakers accused her of hiding information
Sagasti said on Twitter that during the administration of Vizcarra, 2,000 extra doses of the vaccine were received from Sinopharm and that “some senior civil servants were vaccinated”.
The new health minister, Oscar Ugarte, said on Sunday night that Sagasti ordered the resignation of all employees who secretly received the Chinese vaccine. Ugarte said an investigation was underway to identify officials who were secretly vaccinated in September.
Astete, who led Peruvian negotiations to buy 1 million doses of Sinopharm’s vaccine, said on Sunday in a letter that he was vaccinated with the first dose on 22 January. “I am aware of the serious mistake I made, so I decided not to receive the second dose. “
Peru bought the vaccines in early January at a secret price in the contract.
Doctors and nurses protested that they were not included in the first lists to be vaccinated with the doses received from Sinopharm. The pandemic killed 306 doctors and 125 nurses, with more than 20,000 doctors and nurses infected.
Peru had more than 1.2 million cases of coronavirus infections, with 43,491 COVID-related deaths.19 according to the Johns Hopkins University case count worldwide.