Peru’s former president, Martín Vizcarra, has tested positive for coronavirus six months after he said he had been vaccinated against Covid-19.
Mr Vizcarra confirmed the positive test just days after he was banned from public office for allegedly jumping the queue to receive the vaccine.
He is one of dozens of public officials embroiled in the “vaccinegate” scandal.
Mr Vizcarra said he was a volunteer in a trial, but the university hosting it said he asked to be vaccinated.
Only 2.5% of Peruvians have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine so far and the country is going through a second wave, registering record numbers of cases and deaths in recent weeks.
The former president, who governed from March 2018 to November 2020, posted on Twitter [in Spanish] that he and his wife had both tested positive for Covid and were “symptomatic”.
He said that they had tested positive “despite the necessary care we’d taken to avoid bringing the virus home”.
Vaccines are widely regarded as the most powerful weapon for combating the pandemic. But no jab is ever 100% effective and there is a chance people might catch the virus or pass it on even after having had their jab.
Local media had criticised Mr Vizcarra for hugging people during his recent campaign ahead of elections in which he was running for a seat in Peru’s Congress.
Mr Vizcarra won the seat in the 11 April election despite being tainted by the vaccinegate scandal. However, only days later, the outgoing Congress found him guilty of influence peddling, collusion and making false declarations and banned him from holding public office for 10 years.
