Paraguay’s Health Minister resigns amid Drug Health Crisis

This Friday, the Minister of Public Health of Paraguay, Julio Mazzoleni, announced that he is leaving office after meeting with the country’s president, Mario Abdo Benítez, in the midst of a health crisis.

Currently, there is a lack of medicines in public hospitals and in view of this, criticism of their management regarding the pandemic of the coronavirus.

“We have agreed together that I leave the post of the Ministry of Public Health so that the peace that is needed to be able to face this challenge can really be generated.” He said in statements to state television.

“It is a time when it is absolutely necessary for Paraguayans to be united to fight the pandemic and the national interest is above anyone and I hope that this decision will serve for the union of the country,” added the minister at the presidential residence.

According to the Presidency, the vice minister Julio Borba remains as interim minister until the appointment of the highest health authority by Abdo Benítez, of the conservative Colorado Party.

The announcement of Mazzoleni It comes after the day before he assured that he was not going to resign, as he was asked that same day in a declaration voted in the Senate.

The minister’s management had already been criticized this week by health personnel and the nursing union, who for two days concentrated in front of several reference health centers to denounce the lack of medicines and supplies, especially for those affected by the coronavirus .

The shortage is becoming evident as COVID-19 cases accumulate in the country, with a sustained increase in infections that are overwhelming the already precarious public health system.

The criticism is also compounded by the delay in the arrival of vaccines, which at the moment are limited to 4,000 doses of the Sputnik V already applied, to two thousand health workers.

In this regard, at his press conference on Thursday, Mazzoleni admitted that he could not give exact dates of the reception of the million Russian vaccines already negotiated, as well as the 4.3 million doses agreed with the mechanism COVAX.

Mazzoleni leaves the post when the country adds 3,256 deaths and 164,310 cases of coronavirus since the first record of March last year, with a daily average in recent weeks above a thousand infections.

The minister acknowledged on Thursday that there is “an extremely worrying spread of the virus” which supposes “a very important impact on hospitals”.