Ecuador’s health minister resigns – Remains in office for just three weeks

He submitted his resignation from the position of Minister of Health to Ecuador submitted by surgeon Rodolfo Farfan, three weeks after taking office, as announced by the government of outgoing President Lenin Moreno.

According to the APE-MPE, at the same time that prosecutors are conducting an investigation into allegations of nepotism and favoritism in the campaign to immunize the population against the new coronavirus.

Mr. Farfan was named the new Minister of Health on March 1st. He was not available for comment after submitting his resignation for “personal” reasons. He does not face any accusation.

He had replaced Juan Carlos Sevagios, who resigned in late February when a riot broke out and he was investigated for attending the vaccination for the new coronavirus at the nursing home where his mother is staying.

The resignation of the Minister of Health was announced after the police and prosecutor’s raid on a hospital in the capital and at the ministry, as part of the investigation. The government said in a statement that it had every intention of cooperating in the investigation.

Rodolfo Farfan was the fourth Minister of Health of this government and the third to resign amid the pandemic of the new coronavirus, as the media and not only circulate lists of people who were vaccinated out of order thanks to their connections.

Allegations of nepotism and favoritism in the new coronavirus immunization campaigns have sparked scandals in other Latin American countries, such as Peru or Argentina.

According to official figures, more than 120,000 people in Ecuador have received their first dose of the vaccine so far. The outgoing government says it has reached an agreement to supply 20 million doses of vaccine to immunize about 60% of the population over the age of 18 by the end of the year.

President Moreno, his wife and ten people offering health care to the head of state have been vaccinated, according to the government.

As of Thursday, more than 307,400 cases of SARS-CoV-2 and 11,528 deaths due to COVID-19 had been officially recorded in the Andean country. Another 4,800 deaths are thought to have been “probably” due to the pandemic, but this has not been verified by forensics.

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