And while the actual DHS remains on sick leave without any fixed return date, the Acting DHS is dealing with new appointments, two of which are being watched with a wary eye for nepotism.
Those are the appointments of Janira Mira, the sister of Defence Minister of State, Oscar Mira, who has been made Manager of Western Health Region, and her deputy Lily Guerra, a relative of former PUP candidate now Natural Resources CEO Dra. Lesbia Guerra. Mira had been a Financial Officer at another ministry before the election.
Last week during a sit-down via zoom with acting DHS Diaz, she dismissed the question of nepotism and said they are fully qualified
Melissa Diaz, Acting DHS
"Well I came to this desk on December 9th and I think that those things were done already as far as I know they're both qualified. I believe they both have the qualifications that they need to be in the post. I haven't met with Ms. Mira myself but I have went to San Ignacio last week and met with Ms. Guerra and the plans for there it's really good and I just want to reiterate to you that it's not only about the regional manager but it's about the team that's on the ground at western region and we have many experienced doctors, nurses, statisticians, we have a big team at western region, surveillance officers public health inspectors and work continues at all our regions and in fact western region is one of the regions that we are looking at to try to get more bed capacity for Covid cases there and I've been there a few times over the last week or two and also the deputy director of health services, we've been there and the team is working tirelessly to get that unit up and running and we just wanted to stay focus on Covid and on the management of Covid, the control of our cases and to ensure that we get our vaccines and continue with our educational aspects."
