Paraguay Health Chief Quits Amid Senate Pressure Over COVID-19 Handling

MEXICO CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2021) Paraguay's health minister Julio Mazzoleni on Friday yielded to the Senate's pressure to resign after a controversy surrounding medicine shortages.

"We agreed that I will leave the post of the minister of public health in order to let a calm set in that we need to deal with this challenge," he told the state television.

Mazzoleni came under a barrage of criticism from doctors and relatives of patients hospitalized with the coronavirus infection over lack of medicines, medical supplies and insufficient vaccines.

The Senate reached a non-binding decision on Thursday to call for the minister's resignation. Mazzoleni initially refused and accused lawmakers of having no grasp of the precarious situation in the health sector.