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The doctor Óscar Ugarte assumed this Saturday as new Peruvian Minister of Health after the resignation of Pilar Mazzetti.
Mazzetti came out of the briefcase in the middle of a political storm for the complaint that former president Martín Vizcarra was vaccinated against covid-19 before the start of immunization in the country.
Ugarte, 76, was sworn in by interim president Francisco Sagasti in a brief ceremony. He is the fifth in charge of the Health portfolio since the pandemic broke out in Peru, 11 months ago.
Sagasti, praised that Ugarte agreed to lead the ministry when only five months remain of the current transitory government, at a time when the country faces the second wave of the pandemic.
“When there is a crisis situation what you try to do is bring in an experienced player, whom you know, who can quickly join the team,” Sagasti said about Ugarte in an interview with the RPP Channel, shortly before the ceremony.
Ugarte directed that ministry in 2008-2011, in the second term of the late former president Alan García.
“Also in his case, he has suffered the consequences of covid-19,” added the president, alluding to the fact that Ugarte contracted coronavirus in June 2020.
Mazzetti resigned Friday night, after seven months in office., in the midst of questions from Congress over the denunciation of Vizcarra’s vaccination, which sparked a serious controversy.
Mazzetti attended the swearing-in of Ugarte, who received a long applause from the cabinet members present at the Government Palace, after her work as minister.
Covid-19 “hits a lot, you feel like you’re in a hole because you are depending on the most elemental, oxygen and breathing capacity, ”Ugarte said last year after overcoming the disease.
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