MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine new Health minister guarantees fairness in access to Covid-19 vaccines

“We will strengthen the tools and actions that guarantee fairness in access to vaccines, monitoring compliance with the planned process,” Vizzotti said

Argentina has a new Health Minister Carla Vizzotti, who was sworn in on Saturday after the country was rattled by a scandal over VIP coronavirus vaccine access. The incoming official pledged to strengthen oversight and transparency of the inoculation program.

Her predecessor Ginés González García stepped down on Friday after reports that people had been able to use connections to get priority access to COVID-19 vaccines, piling pressure on the government of President Alberto Fernandez.

“We will strengthen the tools and actions that guarantee fairness in access to vaccines, monitoring compliance with the planned process,” Vizzotti, 48, a doctor and specialist in infectious diseases, wrote on Twitter after taking office.

“It is the President's decision that we carry out the largest vaccination plan in our history with the greatest speed and offer each Argentine the peace of mind that all vaccines are administered according to precise sanitary criteria.”

The scandal surfaced when a 79 year old journalist, and supporter of the current administration, Horacio Vervitsky admitted in a radio program he had been vaccinated thanks to his good friend, the Health minister, González García.

Argentina's state attorney for administration investigations has opened a probe into potential abuses of power by the former minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia, who in his resignation letter had blamed “confusion” in his office.

Argentina with a population of about 45 million, has so far received some 1.22 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and 580,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine, manufactured by the Indian Serum Institute.

The scandal mirrors one in Peru earlier this month, which led to the resignation of a number of ministers after it emerged that some 500 people had received early vaccines in secret.