Ecuador's National Assembly denounces the non-existence of a national vaccination plan. | Photo: Twitter: Ministry of Health Ecuador

Quito, February 27 (RHC)-- The irregular vaccination scandal in Latin America has claimed the third of the region's health ministers after the resignation this Friday of the head of the sector in Ecuador, Juan Carlos Zevallos, it was reported from Quito.

The resignation was presented in a letter addressed to President Lenín Moreno. Zevallos had served as Minister of Health for a little less than one year.

In the letter, the former minister insists that "the decisions adopted for the implementation of public policies were based on the principles of transparency, solidarity, equity and had a favorable impact on the reduction of deaths and contained the cases of this terrible disease." 

However, Zevallos was criticized over the past several weeks for the management of the vaccination plan against COVID-19, in the middle of a scandal, for the scarce number of doses that have reached the country and his refusal to disclose the list of officials and public figures who have received the vaccine. 

During the pilot phase, it was confirmed that hospital administrative personnel received the vaccine, leaving aside front line doctors.  Zevallos' justification for not making the list public was that it was "confidential information." 

The case broke after it was revealed that relatives of the minister had been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus at the end of January, after which the Health Commission of the Ecuadorian National Assembly called him to appear on several occasions and demanded the president, Lenín Moreno, to dismiss the minister, as well as requesting an impeachment trial.