Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would defeat the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro by a landslide if they both make it to the second round of next year's elections, a survey by Datafolha released Wednesday showed.
Brazil's Vice President Hamilton Mourao Wednesday commemorated the 57th anniversary of the last coup d'etat in the country as lawmakers pressed for the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hospitals in Brazil's main cities are reaching capacity, health officials warned, as the country recorded the world's highest COVID-19 death toll for the second day running, 2,233, triggering restrictions in the main and richest states.
The government of President Jair Bolsonaro said that Brazil has guaranteed access to 300 million vaccines, mainly those developed by Oxford University along with AstraZeneca pharmaceutical and Brazil's Fiocruz foundation, as well as vaccines from the Covax Facility international initiative.
In Brazil, a mass inoculation campaign against Covid 19 will only be possible from March and will rely on the Astra Zeneca vaccine, a senior health official at the country’s leading public biomedical institute told Reuters.
Brazil's Sao Paulo state delayed on Monday the release of efficacy data for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac, tightening the timeframe for the regulator approval before a planned roll out on Jan. 25.
President Jair Bolsonaro faced scathing criticism on Sunday over his government's plan – or lack thereof, opponents said – to vaccinate the population against Covid-19 in Brazil, the country with the second-highest death toll worldwide.
Brazil's l state of Sao Paulo, the most populous and hardest hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic decided to extend lockdown until December 16, due to a rise in hospitalizations, according to a decree published on Tuesday in the Government Gazette.
More than 300 Brazilians gathered on São Paulo's main commercial thoroughfare on Sunday to protest state Governor João Doria's support for mandatory COVID-19 immunization and testing the potential vaccine developed by China's Sinovac.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday rejected the announced purchase of 46 million doses of a potential vaccine against the coronavirus being developed by a Chinese company and tested in a state governed by a political rival, prompting some to question if he was allowing politics to steer public health decisions.