President Donald Trump plans to pardon former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez, a White House official said.

(AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)SAN JUAN – Pedro Pierluisi vowed to achieve statehood for Puerto Rico and fight against poverty, corruption and COVID-19 after he was sworn in Saturday as the U.S. territory’s new governor. “I need everyone to battle our common enemies.”Saturday’s ceremony marked the end of a chaotic four-year period in which Puerto Rico had three governors, including Pierluisi himself briefly after former Gov. Congress created the board in 2016, a year after Puerto Rico declared its more than $70 billion public debt unpayable, an amount accumulated in part by previous administrations borrowing money to cover budget deficits. At the time she was the island’s justice secretary, but since there was no secretary of state at the time, Puerto Rico’s constitution dictated she assume the governorship. A new legislature also was sworn in on Saturday, marking the first time that the majority of Puerto Rico’s Senate is female.

SAN JUAN – A respiratory therapist who treated the first two COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Puerto Rico became the first person in the U.S. territory to be vaccinated against the virus on Tuesday. Puerto Rico has reported more than 107,000 confirmed and probable coronavirus cases and more than 1,280 deaths. Alicea was immunized a day after FedEx planes carrying more than 16,500 Pfizer vaccine doses landed in Puerto Rico, with another more than 13,600 expected later this week. First in line to be vaccinated are health workers, emergency responders, hospital employees and those who live or work in shelters or nursing homes. Officials have said that Puerto Rico’s National Guard has bought four freezers with the capacity to store 300,000 vaccine doses each.

Wanda Vázquez fired the heads of Puerto Rico’s housing and family departments Sunday in the latest fallout over the discovery of a warehouse filled with emergency supplies dating from Hurricane Maria. The removal of Housing Secretary Fernando Gil and Department of Family Secretary Glorimar Andújar came a day after the governor fired the director of Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency. Vázquez fired him hours after a Facebook video showed angry people breaking into the warehouse in an area where thousands have been in shelters since a recent earthquake. The blogger, Lorenzo Delgado, said he had received a tip about the warehouse but did not specify when. A group of people broke into the warehouse and began distributing supplies to those affected by the recent 6.4 magnitude quake that killed one person and caused damage across Puerto Rico’s southern region.