RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The coronavirus pandemic is spreading rapidly in Brazil. On Tuesday the Ministry of Health reported 2,201 confirmed infections and 46 deaths due to the Covid-19 disease. The number of confirmed cases has doubled in the past four days.
Brazil’s healthcare system is unable to cope with the increasing number of patients due to the lack of ventilators and ICU beds. “At the end of April, the health system will collapse,” Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta announced on Saturday.
The peak in new infections is not expected until the end of August. In the presence of President Jair Bolsonaro, Mandetta demanded that mobility be restricted to prevent a collapse. However, Bolsonaro does not consider this to be necessary.
There will be no collapse, he later assured: “After all, the ‘flu’ is not noticeable in 60 percent of the population,” the president told CNN Brazil. He repeatedly opposed the quarantine measures implemented by the individual states to limit the pandemic.
After states particularly affected by the virus partially suspended traffic on highways and airports due to insufficient controls, Bolsonaro ordered them to be reopened.
Over the weekend, the right-wing conservative governors of São Paulo, João Doria, and Rio de Janeiro, Wilson Witzel, ordered the quarantine in light of rapidly increasing coronavirus cases. Since Tuesday most of the shops as well as sports facilities, restaurants and churches have been closed. In response to this initiative, Bolsonaro described the two governors as “real job killers”.
He accused the two, who were once politically close to him, of conspiring against him. Governor Doria was a “nutcase” who wanted to stand out in the crisis. Thus, the differing use of measures to fight the Coronavirus developed into a power struggle between Bolsonaro and the right-wing conservative establishment in the country.
It also became clear that Bolsonaro’s commitment to the working population is purely rhetorical. On Sunday, he passed a law (MP 927) that would allow employers to disregard contracts with employees for the next four months. This means that they would no longer be required to pay wages or could dismiss employees at any time.
After massive protests, Bolsonaro pulled back that very day. On Twitter, he announced that he would waive the controversial Article 18 on the suspension of contracts. Nevertheless, it is still possible to dismiss people without notice in case of illness or infection.
Concurrently, the government, contrary to its previous announcements, cut the “Bolsa Família” (Family Grant) in 158,000 cases. In the midst of the health and economic crisis, this affects the most impoverished. More than 30 million newly unemployed are expected due to the coronavirus effect, particularly in the lower income groups.
Day laborers such as street vendors and housemaids are particularly affected by contact suspensions and quarantine. According to a study, 72 percent of favela residents do not have access to savings.
Every third person will have difficulties in buying enough food during quarantine, alerts the Data Favela institute. Human rights organizations are therefore calling on the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to strike down PEC 95, the constitutional amendment that had frozen all social spending in 2016.
Meanwhile, millions of people protested contact-free against the President again last weekend. Sunday evening saw the eighth “Panelaço”, during which people loudly bang on pots from their windows and balconies or honk their horns in the streets.
More than 275,000 people have so far signed a petition for the President’s impeachment, which is supported by members of the left-wing party PSOL, prominent intellectuals and social movements.