MADRID (SPAIN – Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa will leave his job on Tuesday to contest in the regional Catalan elections scheduled on February 14, the Prime Minister’s office said on Monday in a statement.
The statement said, “Salvador Illa starts today his last 24 hours at the helm of the ministry. Tomorrow Tuesday will be his last cabinet meeting and his replacement will be disclosed.”
Illa, who has closely watched Spain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, had said he would run for the regional elections in Catalonia, which is his home region, and would quit when campaign started in earnest.
Close to 2.5 million cased have been diagnosed with the coronavirus since the beginning and an official death toll of 55,441 as of Friday, in Spain.
