Bolsonaro Considers Actions Against Covid-19 ‘Excess’, Calls for Reopening of Trade

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Monday, June 22nd, President Jair Bolsonaro once again advocated the reopening of trade and said that “there may have been a certain excess” in the way the novel coronavirus pandemic was handled.

He said that new information is emerging “worldwide” and that the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has made mistakes, but failed to specify which ones.

“We appeal here to the governors and mayors to start opening trade, obviously with responsibility. Because new information is coming from all over the world, it comes from the W.H.O., through its mistakes, that maybe there was a bit of exaggeration in dealing with this issue in the past,” the President said to the BandNews channel after attending an event in Brasília.

Brazil recorded 50,737 deaths from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, by early afternoon on Monday.

When the virus had not yet reached the country but was already claiming lives in other parts of the world, Bolsonaro even described Covid-19 as a “minor flu”. He also claimed that there was “hysteria” surrounding the spread of the disease.

The President clashed with governors when states began to implement social isolation measures and closing trade, considered by health authorities such as the WHO to be the most effective in containing the virus.

On Monday, he reiterated his position, which he has been demonstrating throughout the pandemic, that isolation measures should be relaxed in order not to overly hurt the economy.

“I have always said this. Life and employment, one thing is fully linked to the other and we can’t, in some isolated locations here in Brazil, allow the collateral impact of the tackling of the pandemic to be more damaging than the pandemic itself,” said Bolsonaro.

Source: G1