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The former head of Non-Communicable Diseases of the Ministry of Health (Minsal), Andrea Albagli Iruretagoyena, in her statement to the Public Ministry on September 30, had already mentioned her in her statement. It is that the role that the head of the Health Planning Division, Johanna Acevedo, had within the Health portfolio in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile was key because she managed the numbers of daily infections and deaths.
Therefore, it was not surprising that Acevedo declared before the Prosecutor’s Office in the framework of the investigation for an alleged reckless dissemination of pathogenic germs in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile, in which President Sebastián Piñera, the former minister, is sued Jaime Mañalich Health Department and other authorities.
His testimony, which was revealed on September 21 by T13, also included a version similar to that denounced by Albagli Iruretagoyena, in the sense that “the minister (Jaime Mañalich) reported with a parallel, unknown system to us” and also requested “to erase the last records to make it fit.”
“Until May 19, she (Mañalich’s chief of staff, Itziar Linazasoro) made the public report and sent it to me, and I had to verify that it was ok, and adjust the data of the epidemiological reports to what she announced, “Acevedo declared before the Prosecutor’s Office, assuring that in the epidemiological reports prepared by Minsal specialists the number of infected had to” be adjusted “to match those communicated daily by former Minister Mañalich, whose cabinet kept a parallel count.
Acevedo’s emails
Now the middle Cyprus revealed the existence of emails where Acevedo alerted differences in the figures released publicly with the numbers managed by the Department of Epidemiology of the ministry, area under his responsibility.
In the email, Acevedo tells Mañalich’s then chief of staff, Itziar Linazasoro, who is one of the investigated authorities: “I copy the total cases of Epivigila (Minsal software where the infections reported by doctors and the seremi) yesterday, which added 90 more cases than those reported today. The Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza, who is also being investigated, was copied among the recipients of the mail. That day, 2,060 cases had been confirmed, while Mañalich had informed the country that morning that the figure reached 8,869.
In his statement before the Prosecutor’s Office, Acevedo stated that the reports “had to be consistent with what was reported by the authority. I pointed out that I always reported everything to the authority, internally, but the epidemiological reports published had to be consistent with the information that the minister announced in the public account ”.
The Mañalich criteria
This difference in figures was resolved on May 19. However, that did not imply that the real number of infected that his department carried was made transparent. “The public reporting followed certain criteria to be able to report a case. It required that the person be notified, that they be changed from suspicious to confirmed status (in the Epivigila system). Those two criteria to report a case. In addition, he asked for PCR support (a test that detects the virus in the body) ”, said Acevedo.
Due to these criteria, “the gap was generated in subjects with positive PCR without having changed the status (from” suspect “to” confirmed “in Epivigila), or unreported PCR positive (also in Epivigila),” Acevedo added.
Despite the fact that not all the cases were reported by Mañalich, Acevedo said that for her “it was important to leave a daily record, including complete information, of all new infected by Covid-19. I understand that my responsibility is to collect complete information. to the authority. ”For this reason, he sent a series of emails to Mañalich, Paula Daza, Itziar Linazasoro and Rafael Araos.
For example, one encrypted from May 26 had attached a file specifying the number of cases of Covid infection that was not being publicly disclosed, region by region.
Source: Ciper Chile
The “hand” of the Presidency
On the day that Mañalich’s parallel count was completed, two advisers from La Moneda arrived at the Minsal. Among them, Pablo Eguiguren, trusted advisor to the Presidency. They came to participate in the preparation of the reports. Thus, on Sunday, May 24, Acevedo sent his daily report with the total number of new infections, but three hours and twenty minutes later he sent the file again, now with the following message: “A daily report prepared by the presidency with the support of EPI is attached ”.
Source: Ciper Chile
On May 20, a report was also prepared in conjunction with advisers to the Presidency. The subject of that day read: “Attached daily report part 1, prepared in conjunction with the presidency.”
This situation was also experienced in the death count. According to Acevedo, this happened because Mañalich used a method that did not conform to the usual process, although he did not detail how that information was generated. “There were several methodologies. The first one from Mañalich generated a gap with respect to the reporting that we had, then a different system of crossing Civil Registry bases with a laboratory was developed, but it does not correspond to the correct form either, because there is a process of recoding the cause of death that does DEIS beyond the PCR result, in case that death is not attributable to Covid ”, he explained.
This version of Acevedo even clashes with what Mañalich himself said on October 5 in an interview with T13. That day, the former minister stated that he did not recall receiving an email from Acevedo notifying him of differences between those infected by Epidemiology and those registered by his cabinet. “What I do remember is that we said to her (Johanna Acevedo) ‘thank you very much for your services, go to this position now, but now Mr. Araos (Rafael Araos, who replaced Acevedo in the Department of Epidemiology) is going to offer us a program to improve what we are doing and we will take what he suggests to us. ‘
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