Julio Daniel Salinas Grecco (born 17 February 1962) is a

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

an neurologist and politician of

Open Cabildo The open cabildo (Spanish: ''cabildo abierto'') is a traditional Hispanic American political action for convening citizens to make important decisions. It is comparable to the North American town hall meeting. History Colonial period The open c ...

(CA), serving as Minister of Public Health of Uruguay since 1 March 2020. Graduated from the

University of the Republic The University of the Republic ( es, Universidad de la República, sometimes ''UdelaR'') is Uruguay's oldest public university. It is by far the country's largest university, as well as the second largest public university in South America and t ...

in 1988, he has the degree of

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

. In 2008 he obtained a bachelor's degree in neurology. In 2012 he obtained a master's degree in Health Business Management from the

University of Montevideo The Universidad de Montevideo (in English: ''University of Montevideo'') is a private (catholic, Opus Dei) university located in Montevideo, Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Ur ...

and in 2018 a master's degree in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...

. He also has a Diploma in Sleep Medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of Latin American Center for Human Economy (CLAEH).

Early life

Raised in

San José de Mayo San José de Mayo () is the capital city of the San José Department in southern Uruguay. Location and geography The city is located at the centre of the state, on the intersection of Route 3 with Route 11, from the centre of Montevideo. The r ...

, he is the eldest son of two teachers; his father was chairman of the

San José Department San José Department () is a department of Uruguay. Its capital is San José de Mayo. It borders Colonia Department to the west, Flores Department to the north and the departments of Florida, Canelones and Montevideo to the east. Its southern l ...

of Teaching Union. He started working at the age of thirteen mending shoes in his hometown.

Career

In the practice of medicine, he worked in different health centers, such as the Círculo Católico de Obreros del Uruguay, Central Hospital of the Armed Forces and Casa de Galicia. Between 2012 and 2018 he served as head of the

Electroencephalography Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex ...

Service at Vilardebó Hospital, while between 2009 and 2019 as manager of Material Resources of the Uruguay Medical Union Assistance Center (CASMU).

Minister of Health

Salinas was appointed Minister of Public Health on December 16, 2019, as a member of a party that makes up the electoral alliance,

Coalición Multicolor The Multicolor Coalition is a big tent political coalition formed for the ballotage in Uruguay in 2019. It is led by the Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou and is composed of the centre-right National Party (PN), the centrist Colorado Part ...

. He took office on March 1, in replacement of

Jorge Basso Jorge Basso (born 28 April 1956) is a Uruguayan physician and politician of the Socialist Party – Broad Front, who served as Minister of Public Health from 2015 to 2020, during the second administration of Tabaré Vázquez Tabaré Ramón V ...

Coronavirus pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic emerged within the first days of the administration. The first cases were reported on 13 March 2020 by the Ministry of Public Health. On March 14, public performances were canceled and some public places were closed. Local transmission was established with two non-imported cases reported on 15 March. The first patients showed mild symptoms of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 7 April 2020, the ship

Greg Mortimer Greg Mortimer (born 10 December 1952) is an Australian mountaineer. Mortimer is notable as one of the first two Australians (with Tim Macartney-Snape) to successfully climb Mount Everest, on 3 October 1984. Their ascent, without supplemental o ...

, which holds up to 216 passengers, became stranded in Uruguayan waters, asking for help after people exhibited symptoms such as fever, which prompted authorities to ban them from disembarking. After the Uruguayan medical teams boarded the cruise ship to test passengers on 1 April, 81 people tested positive for

. Six people found seriously ill with

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...

were evacuated and transferred to hospitals. A news report on 8 April stated that the ship had not yet received permission to dock, although Uruguayan authorities were arranging an evacuation flight to Australia and New Zealand. By that time 128 persons on the vessel had tested positive for

. Six had transferred to a hospital in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

. Passengers from Europe and America who had positive tests would not be allowed to travel to their home countries until their subsequent tests indicated negative results. On the night of 10 April some passengers were evacuated in order to fly to Australia. On 18 April, a Filipino crewman died of the

.AKLANON SEAMAN, NAMATAY SA COVID-19
Radyo Todo 18 April 2020

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Salinas, Daniel Open Cabildo (Uruguay) politicians Ministers for Public Health of Uruguay University of the Republic (Uruguay) alumni University of Montevideo alumni University of Barcelona alumni 1962 births Living people