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Brazil reports 35,000 new virus cases; PAHO denies the pandemic is under control

Wednesday, June 17th 2020 - 08:00 UTC
Full article 3 comments
Walter Braga Netto, head of the office of the president’s chief of staff, and one of the top officials handling the crisis, said it was under control Walter Braga Netto, head of the office of the president’s chief of staff, and one of the top officials handling the crisis, said it was under control

Brazil reported a record 34,918 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the same day that one of the senior officials leading the country’s widely criticized response to the crisis said the outbreak was under control.

Brazil, the world’s No. 2 coronavirus hotspot after the United States, is fast approaching 1 million cases, although experts say the true number is likely higher due to patchy testing. Brazil also registered 1,282 COVID-19 deaths since its last update on Monday, the Health Ministry said, bringing confirmed fatalities in the country to 45,241.

Walter Braga Netto, the head of the office of the president’s chief of staff, known as Casa Civil, and one of the top officials handling the crisis, said it was under control.

“There is a crisis, we sympathize with bereaved families, but it is managed,” said Braga Netto, who spoke during a webinar held by the Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro.

Braga Netto said Brazil’s deaths-per-million-people figure was better than that of Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy and France. As such, the Army general said he “was trying to convey a message of optimism in the management of the crisis.”

His optimism was not shared by the World Health Organization’s regional director.

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa Etienne said in a video briefing from Washington that Brazil is a major concern. Latin America’s largest country accounts for about a quarter of the roughly 4 million coronavirus cases in the Americas and nearly 25% of the deaths, she said.

“We are not seeing transmission slowing down” in Brazil, Etienne said.

PAHO recommends that Brazil and other regional countries strengthen social distancing and urged that reopening of the economy be done slowly and carefully.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has long opposed social distancing measures, and many of the country’s states are re-opening for business even though the outbreak remains severe.

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  • Terence Hill

    Brazil Registers 44k Deaths and 890k Coronavirus Cases
    There were 729 new deaths registered in the country on Monday
    Jun.16.2020 2:10PM
    https ://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/scienceandhealth/2020/06/brazil-registers-44k-deaths-and-890k-coronavirus-cases.shtml
    “Brazil Approaches 1 Million Covid-19 Virus Cases
    If it keeps up daily average, country will reach the mark by the end of this week”
    https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/

    Jun 18th, 2020 - 12:54 am 0
  • Chicureo

    (Corrected post from another thread with an attached article.)

    Theodore THINK, watch for the rocks...

    Bold words from an irritable Argentine zonda that's shed the matrimonial yoke. Admittedly I'm a cowardly lion tied to the land.

    (To steal the dialogue from a great movie)

    Raisuli the Magnificent: [telegram] To Theodore Roosevelt: You are like the Wind and I Like the Lion. You form the tempest, The sand stings my eyes and the ground is in parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I like the Lion must remain in my place, but you like the wind, will never know yours. [signed] Mulai Ahmed Mohammed el Raisuli the Magnificent, Lord of the Rif, Sultan to the Berbers.

    Madame DeFarge keeps me in my place, and you will never know yours..

    Raisuli the Magnificent also advised: Ignorance is a steep hill with perilous rocks at the bottom.

    (For those living below in their mother's basement I add an except from the same newspaper he posts his scandalous information. [Thankfully without Latin.])

    ”With social distancing imposed by the coronavirus, the brutal economic reversal has mainly affected informal and self-employed workers, bringing the risk of an explosion of poverty. According to the World Bank's accounts, without the protection measures implemented by the federal government, the total number of impoverished Brazilians could jump from 41.8 million in 2019 to 48.8 million (about 23% of the population) in 2020.”

    (The poor will far suffer more than those infected that have a small mortality rate.)

    Jun 18th, 2020 - 02:50 am 0
  • Terence Hill

    Chicureo “Although I've defended Pinochet despite his regrettable actions”

    Jun 20th, 2020 - 11:33 am 0
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