Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warned today, Friday, that despite the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the end of the health emergency due to COVID-19, the pandemic is not over, so he asked the population to continue to be vaccinated against the disease.
“Despite the end of the state of emergency, the pandemic is not over yet. Take the booster doses and do not fail to have the vaccination schedule always complete,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
According to the latest report from the Ministry of Health, Brazil has recorded 701,833 deaths from COVID-19 and 37.4 million confirmed cases of the disease.
“After three years, today we can finally say that we are out of the health emergency due to COVID-19. Unfortunately, Brazil has surpassed the barrier of 700,000 deaths from the virus, and I believe that at least half of the lives could have been saved if we had not had a denialist government,” added the president.
Lula da Silva assured that the Brazilian government would encourage science and vaccination campaigns and “will act to preserve lives”.
WHO declared a health emergency due to COVID-19 on January 30, 2020, and the decision to lift it announced today is due to the decrease in the number of cases and deaths due to the disease, in addition to the progress in vaccination of the world population.
According to WHO estimates, seven million people have died from the disease worldwide since 2020.