The infection rate in Brazil is getting worse. Right-wing extremist President Jair Bolsonaro does not seem to be able to ease the crisis.
São Paulo / Rio de Janeiro – The number of corona fatalities in Brazil has passed the 400,000 mark. As the daily newspaper “Estado de São Paulo” reported, citing the health authorities, 3,074 people infected with the coronavirus died within one day. The total number of so far fatal courses is 401,417, the total number of corona cases is around 15 million.
The pandemic situation in Brazil has been worsening steadily since the beginning of 2021. The intensive care units are overloaded, there is a shortage of drugs and vaccination doses. The death toll is rising sharply. Experts see the virus mutation P1 as the cause of the increased spread of the virus in Brazil.
President Jair Bolsonaro ignores warnings and appoints inexperienced general minister of health
The right-wing extremist President Jair Bolsonaro plays down the coronavirus pandemic to this day and opposes the protective measures initiated by the governors. The government ignores the advice and warnings from experts, uses ineffective drugs. “There are guilty parties and they are being held accountable,” said Senator Renan Calheiros, who heads the Senate’s committee of inquiry, which is now to analyze the government’s handling of the pandemic.
For example, the committee should investigate why Jair Bolsonaro has appointed the medically and administratively inexperienced General Eduardo Pazuello as health minister after two doctors in the office of health minister. The President had tried in vain to prevent the committee of inquiry.
Coronavirus pandemic causes famine in Brazil
In addition to the high number of cases and deaths, the pandemic has also triggered a famine. 116.8 million people suffer from food shortages, 19 million of them from hunger. This was the result of a study by the Brazilian Research Network for Food Security (speech PENSSAN) with data from December. The increase compared to 2018 is 54 percent. “The increase reflects the economic crisis in the middle class,” says the nutritionist from the PENSSAN speech, Rosana Salles, to the German press agency .
In the past few decades, there has been repeated hunger, especially in northeastern Brazil. The former head of state Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011) was able to implement social programs such as “Fome Zero” (in German “Zero Hunger”) with the help of high raw material prices and newly discovered oil reserves. The United Nations took Brazil off the map of hunger for the first time in 2014. However, the current President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been in office since 2019, suspended the National Food Security Council in one of its first acts. (epd / dpa / TK)
Rubriklistenbild: © Marcos Corrêa / Palacio Planalto / dpa
