Peruvian Foreign Minister Elizabeth Astete resigned on Sunday evening after announcing she had received a dose of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials and before the country began its implementation.
In a statement released on social media, Astete said that after contacting several officials who had tested positive for Covid-19 in December 2020 and January 2021, he had accepted an offer to receive a dose of the vaccine. Sinopharm on January 22 of what he understood to be “the remaining doses of the lot that Cayetano Heredia University had.”
Astete, 68, cited travel obligations to work and having to undergo Covid-19 testing after having been in contact with people who had tested positive as factors influencing his decision to vaccinate. in January.
In a statement, Astete said:
As a result of the recent disclosure about the vaccination of (former) President Vizcarra and his wife, as well as the understandable impact that this news had on public opinion, I am aware of the serious mistake I made, reason for the which I decided not to receive the second dose “.
“I have submitted my resignation from the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs to the President of the Republic.”
Astete’s resignation comes after local media reported last week that former President Martin Vizcarra and his wife, Maribel Díaz Cabello, were vaccinated while in office last October and did not disclose this information to the public.
On Thursday, Vizcarra said he had volunteered as one of 12,000 people who were part of the Sinopharm vaccine trials.
But on Saturday, Cayetano Heredia University (UCH), the main university in charge of the trial, issued a statement clarifying that Vizcarra and his wife were not part of the vaccine trial, which began in September.
Peruvian President Francisco Sagasti accepted Astete’s resignation Sunday night and said on Twitter that the health minister had ordered an investigation into senior public officials taking doses of the vaccine.
“With the transparency and firmness that characterize our government, we will publish the results of the research and the information provided by the Center for Clinical Studies at Cayetano Heredia University,” Sagasti said.
Sagasti also confirmed the resignation of Deputy Health Minister Luis Suárez Ognio after local media reported that he was also vaccinated.
Speaking to local RPP radio on Sunday night, Sagasti expressed outrage at the scandal and said Sinopharm was giving doses that were used to vaccinate government officials and were not part of the batch used for targeted trials. for UCH.
Peru became the first Latin American country to distribute China’s Sinopharm vaccine on February 9. Although other agreements have been finalized with Pfizer / BioNTech and Oxford / Astrazeneca, China’s Sinopharm vaccine is the only Covid-19 vaccine currently distributed in the country.