Coronavirus: Peru ministers resign over secret shots, university denies ex-president part of Sinopharm vaccine trial
- Peru’s health and foreign ministers resign, ex-president responds to claims he received coronavirus shot out of turn
- Vaccine being used in Peru was developed by Chinese company Sinopharm
Peru’s Foreign Minister Elizabeth Astete on Sunday resigned amid an uproar over government officials being secretly vaccinated against the coronavirus before the country recently received doses from China’s Sinopharm for health workers facing a resurgence in the pandemic.
Just a day earlier, President Francisco Sagasti said he accepted the resignation of Health Minister Pilar Mazzetti due to a scandal over former president Martin Vizcarra having also received an early vaccination.
Vizcarra, who was ousted by Congress in November over corruption allegations, has said he did not jump the line to receive the vaccination, but rather that he got it as part of a trial.
Astete, who had held her post since November, said she was inoculated on January 22 after receiving an offer from the Peruvian university Cayetano Heredia, in charge of the trials, to receive the Sinopharm vaccine from a “remnant lot” of the tests.
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“I am aware of the serious mistake I made, which is why I decided not to receive the second dose,” she said through Twitter. “For the reasons stated, I have presented my letter of resignation to the president.”
Sagasti said on Twitter that during Vizcarra’s administration, an extra 2,000 doses of the vaccine had been received from Sinopharm and that “some senior public officials were vaccinated”.
Peruvian media said that Attorney General Zoraida Avalos had opened a “preliminary investigation” against ex-president Vizcarra and others responsible for the early vaccination of senior officials.
New Health Minister Oscar Ugarte said that Sagasti ordered the resignation of all officials who secretly received the Chinese vaccine.
A newspaper revealed Vizcarra had received a coronavirus shot in October, weeks before he was impeached and removed from office on charges that he was “morally incompetent”.
Peru bought the vaccines in early January at a price that is secret under the contract.
Doctors and nurses have protested because they were not included in the first lists to be vaccinated with doses received from Sinopharm.
Vizcarra - who is now campaigning for a seat in Congress - admitted last week he and his wife had taken part in a vaccine trial, adding he had kept quiet about it as “volunteers have to maintain confidentiality”.
But Cayetano Heredia University on Sunday denied that Vizcarra had been a trial volunteer as he claims.
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The Cayetano Heredia University in Lima said the trial leader had informed Peru’s health authorities “that Mr Martin Vizcarra and (his wife) Mrs Maribel Diaz Cabello are not part of the group of 12,000 volunteer research subjects”.
Vizcarra expressed “great surprise” at Cayetano Heredia University’s statement, reiterating he had received two doses as a trial subject.
He said there had been no “administrative fault or crime”, and warned his actions were being used by “enemies of the country with the intention of discrediting”.
The government announced in early January an agreement with Sinopharm to purchase up to 38 million doses of the vaccine.
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The first batch of 300,000 vaccines arrived a week ago and the immunisation programme against Covid-19 began on Tuesday with the application of doses to health care workers who are the most exposed to the disease.
Peru has recorded more than 1.2 million coronavirus cases and over 43,400 deaths among its 33 million people.
The health system is overwhelmed, with more than 14,200 people hospitalised and a shortage of medical oxygen.
The government has said it intends to vaccinate 10 million people by July.
Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
