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 launching vaccination.
In a statement posted on social media, Astete said that after being in contact with several officials who tested positive for Covid-19 in December 2020 and January 2021, she accepted an offer to receive a dose of Sinopharm vaccine on January 22 from what he understood to be “the remaining doses from the batch owned by Cayetano Heredia University”.
Astete, 68, cited travel obligations for work and had to undergo Covid-19 tests after coming into contact with people who tested positive as factors influencing her decision to get vaccinated. in January.
In a statement, Astete said:
Following the recent revelation 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, which is why I decided not to receive the second dose. ”
“I have resigned as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the President of the Republic.”
Astete’s resignation comes after local media reported last week that former President Martin Vizcarra and his wife, Maribel Diaz Cabello, were vaccinated during office in October last year and did not disclose the information to the public.
On Thursday, Vizcarra said he volunteered as one of 12,000 people in the Sinopharm vaccine trials.
But on Saturday, Cayetano Heredia University (UCH) – the most important university in the process – released a statement clarifying that Vizcarra and his wife were not part of the vaccination process, which began in September.
Peruvian President Francisco Sagasti accepted Astete’s resignation on Sunday night and said on Twitter that the health minister had ordered an investigation into senior public officials receiving vaccine doses.
“With the transparency and firmness that characterizes our government, we will publish the results of the survey and the information provided by the Center for Clinical Studies of Cayetano Heredia University,” Sagasti said.
Sagasti also confirmed the resignation of Deputy Health Minister Luis Suárez Ognio after local media reported that he too had been vaccinated.
Speaking to RPP on local radio on Sunday night, Sagasti expressed outrage at the scandal and said the doses that were used to vaccinate government officials were donated by Sinopharm – and are not part of the batch used for UCH-led studies.
Peru became the first Latin American country to distribute China’s Sinopharm vaccine on February 9, although other agreements were finalized with Pfizer / BioNTech and Oxford / Astrazeneca, China’s Sinopharm vaccine is the only Covid-19 vaccine currently distributed in the country.