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  • Controversy: The Government of Chile clashes with the President of Argentina for his comparisons of deaths during the coronavirus

Chile has given this Saturday a rudder blow in its fight against Covid-19, which is affecting the country with special fury: Jaime Mañalich leaves the Ministry of Health, personally and politically exhausted in the middle of a dispute about the actual figures of deaths during the pandemic .

Mañalich will be replaced by Enrique Paris, former president of the Medical College. The minister until today is leaving in the midst of a storm of criticism for his communication style, but also for the hard data that reveals the effect of the pandemic in Chile. On April 14, Mañalich said that he was in a position to say that the contagion growth curve had been "flattened", but the reality, two months later, is that Chile, a country of 19 million inhabitants, exhibits 167,355 infected and 3,101 deaths .

"All the prediction figures have collapsed like house of cards," Mañalich admitted days ago. "His communication was not at all empathetic," CNN Chile said today when analyzing his exit from the Health portfolio.

But the coup de grace for Mañalich came this week. A journalistic investigation revealed that the Ministry of Health reports to the World Health Organization (WHO) death figures much higher than those reported in the country. If to date Chile exhibits 3,101 deceased, the WHO has information that they are more than 5,000 .

The Undersecretary of Health, Paula Daza, explained that the information that her Ministry sends to the WHO includes "confirmed cases, suspected cases, probable cases, confirmed deaths, and also those deaths that do not have a diagnostic confirmation." The explanation did not convince, and added pressure on Mañalich, the president's personal friend, Sebastián Piñera, until the resignation was confirmed today.

After a Friday in which Chile added more than 6,000 new cases, the opposition asked Piñera to relieve Mañalich: "It is evident and painful that the health strategy failed, that public faith was violated with the lack of transparency and life of people is at risk. That is why it is essential that President Sebastián Piñera change the strategy and the Minister of Health. "

Piñera praised Mañalich's work at the authorities' relief ceremony at the Ministry, but admitted that the virus "has hit Chile hard" and called on Paris to "lead the profound reform of Health, both public and private" in the that his government is "committed". Paris has extensive experience in the field of Health, was an adviser to former President Michelle Bachelet and has a long technical, although not political, relationship with Piñera.

"No one knows for sure what the evolution and spread of the coronavirus pandemic and the global recession will be like, but we all know that the best way to deal with it is with solidarity, with dialogue, with agreements. I am sure that the minister He will lead this path with unity, dialogue, collaboration and meetings, "said the Chilean head of state during a speech at the Palacio de la Moneda .

Piñera praised the reaction of his compatriots, but drew attention to those who do not meet the criteria of hygiene and social distancing . "We need responsibility to protect our own lives, but also solidarity to protect the lives of others. I make a fervent call for all of us to respect the sanitary instructions. The vast majority are complying with them, but there are some who do not and are compromising the health and life of everyone else. "

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

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