Corona in Brazil: 100 “graves” at Copacabana as a protest against Bolsonaro

Brazil is the worst country in the world to be hit by the Corona crisis after the United States. With a protest at Copacabana, activists criticize Jair Bolsonaro's policies. 

• Brazil has seen a sharp increase in people with corona .
• President  Jair Bolsonaro downplayed the virus.
• The number of Covid 19 deaths is increasing rapidly. 

Update from Friday, June 12, 2020, 12:57 p.m .: Activists in Brazil protested against the government's corona policy . Since more than 40,000 people in the country have already died from the effects of the Corona infection , volunteers from the Rio de Paz organization have excavated 100 empty graves on the Copacabana beach and set up crosses to do so. “The hardest demonstration in our history,” said Antonio Costa, president of the organization on Twitter. 

Manifestação mais difícil da nossa história. pic.twitter.com/Eg7RGjc0Mw

In several cities in Brazil, citizens have been demonstrating on the streets for days against President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic. Bolsonaro has always downplayed the corona virus and continues to refuse strict restrictions to curb its spread. 

Update from Tuesday, June 9th, 2020, 12.06pm: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has announced that he will publish detailed data on the development of the corona pandemic in Brazil in the future . Last week, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said it would only publish new infections and deaths, and no more total numbers. 

Brazil only wants to publish corona figures after 10 p.m.

From now on, whoever wants to defend Bolsonaro's catastrophic handling of the pandemic has a brand new line of argument: "Well, the official numbers tell a different story."

The overall figures are now being published again, but according to Bolsonaro , only after 10 p.m. This means that they can no longer be announced in the evening news. And the Brazilian government is also trying other means to depict the actual size of the pandemic as small as possible, reports the "Deutsche Welle". For example, only people who have died in the past 24 hours and for whom Covid-19 was confirmed as the cause of death on the same day are included in the daily death toll . People who do this later are no longer recorded. 

Protests against the distortion of the numbers come from civil society in the form of street protests, as well as from the many states that have independently applied stricter corona restrictions . Bolsonaro meanwhile relies on the argument of privacy regarding one's own health.

Brazil stops publication of total corona figures

+++ 22.34 PM: the Brazilian government no longer reveals the total number of corona cases in the particularly badly affected country. Since the weekend, the website of the Ministry of Health for Corona Statistics has only published the numbers of infected and fatalities newly registered in the previous 24 hours. The page was temporarily not available for the changeover.

Right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro wrote on Twitter of an adjustment. The South American prosecutor's office launched an investigation and urged General Eduardo Pazuello, the interim health minister, to explain the move within 72 hours.

Bolsonaro has been downplaying the risk of lung disease Covid-19 since the pandemic broke out. The head of state speaks of a "mild flu" and rejects protective measures. He fears that a lockdown could harm the country's economy. On Friday, he threatened Brazil's membership of the World Health Organization (WHO), which he accused of ideological bias.

Corona in Brazil: Jair Bolsonaro also wants to leave WHO

Update from Sunday, June 7th, 2020, 3:27 pm:  Following the withdrawal of the USA from the World Health Organization (WHO), Brazil is now also threatening this step. "The United States has already quit. Either WHO works without ideological bias or we are outside, ”said Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to CNN Brasil on Friday evening (local time). "We don't need outside people to give us health tips here."

At the end of May, the United States had withdrawn from the WHO. However, while the United States had been one of the largest donors to the UN agency, Brazil stopped paying contributions in 2019, according to a report by the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. The largest country in Latin America has payments of $ 33 million pending.

Bolsonaro, also known as the "Tropical Trump", referred to the controversy that the WHO caused with its tests with hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of Covid 19 . "What do you need this WHO for? The WHO recommended a few days ago that the studies on hydroxychloroquine should not continue, and it is now resuming it, ”said the right-wing president. Like Trump, he expects the controversial antimalarial aid to help fight the rampant coronavirus pandemic.

Brazil is increasingly becoming the new center of the pandemic. The number of reported corona infections has risen to over 646,000. To date, more than 35,000 people have died from the virus.

One death per minute: Corona crisis in Brazil is growing dramatically

Update from Friday, June 5, 2020, 7:30 a.m . :  The corona crisis in Brazil is becoming increasingly dramatic. According to official figures from Thursday, the number of corona deaths in the South American country increased by another 1473 cases to 34,021, according to the Ministry of Health in Brazil. The authorities had to register a negative record for the number of corona deaths on the third day in a row. 

Brazil now has more deaths than Italy and is now the country with the third highest death toll in the corona pandemic. So far, 614,941 people have been proven to be infected with the virus in the country. The actual number is likely to be much higher, also because Brazil tests very little under President Jair Bolsonaro , only serious cases in the public health system. 

The virus in Brazil now kills at least one person per minute , according to the newspaper "Folha de S. Paulo". Your website was highlighted in black on Thursday evening.

NO BRASIL TO MORTO POR MINUTO | O Brasil registrou nas últimas 24 horas 1,473 óbitos por coronavírus, além de 30,925 novos casos de coronavírus nas últimas 24 horas, segundo o Ministério da Saúde.https: //t.co/vrsjfwXa9Av.XUitter.com/pv

Corona in Brazil: Trump sends Bolsonaro "God's gift"

Update from Sunday, May 31, 2020, 12.46 p.m .:  Contrary to medical recommendations, the United States is sending two million doses of hydroxychloroquine to Brazil for use against the coronavirus . The malaria drug is to be used for the prevention of nurses and doctors as well as for the treatment of infected people, according to a joint statement by the two countries on Sunday (May 31, 2020).

To recommend the drug for use in  Corona patients, the  Brazilian Ministry of Health recently changed its guidelines for doctors. Health Minister Nelson Teich, himself a medical doctor, even asked for his release because he was  opposed to the operation, unlike right-wing President  Jair Bolsonaro .

It has not yet been conclusively clarified whether the drug is actually suitable for the treatment of Covid-19 lung disease . Nevertheless, some, such as Bolsonaro or US President Donald Trump, hope that the drug will help combat the rampant coronavirus pandemic. Trump had praised hydroxychloroquine as a "gift from God" and, according to his own information, had taken the drug at least temporarily as a prophylactic measure to protect himself against infection.

Number of corona deaths in Brazil is climbing rapidly

Update from Sunday, May 31, 2020, 8:30 a.m . :  The number of corona deaths in Brazil continues to rise rapidly and has climbed to 28,834. The South American country has thus overtaken France and now has the fourth most fatalities worldwide behind the USA, Great Britain and Italy. So far, 498 440 people in the largest state in South America have been shown to be infected with the novel corona virus, as the Brazilian Ministry of Health announced on Saturday (local time).

Brazil's right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro considers Covid-19 lung disease to be “mild flu” and rejects protective measures. He fears that a lockdown could harm the country's economy. However, a number of states have imposed exit restrictions and shutdowns to slow the spread of the virus.

Bolsonaro fails across the board: Brazil is seeing more and more corona deaths 

Updated on Saturday, 30.05.2020, 10.50 pm:  In Brazil , the death toll is by the novel coronavirus has risen to nearly 28,000. The South American country thus overtook Spain and came fifth in the number of corona deaths worldwide. The virus registered 1124 further deaths within 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health in Brasília.

With almost 27,000 cases, a record number of newly registered infections was also achieved. According to the ministry, at least 465,000 people have been infected so far in Brazil . This puts the country in second place in international comparison after the USA in the number of registered cases . 

Experts believe that the actual number of corona infections in Brazil is up to 15 times higher than the official statistics indicate, since the virus has not yet been tested across the board.

Corona crisis in Brazil: Jair Bolsonaro continues to cause horror

Update from Thursday, May 28th, 2020, 11:45 am: In Brazil , the horror of the current situation is increasing. The number of corona deaths has now risen to more than 25,000. The Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday (May 27th) that in the past 24 hours the number had increased by 1086 people to 25,598. This is the fifth time the number of corona deaths has passed the 1,000 mark since the corona crisis in the Latin American country intensified a week ago. 

Corona in Brazil: low test rates and record infection rates

Overall, in the 210 million inhabitants country authorities claims to 411,821 people with the novel coronavirus infected. After the United States, Brazil is the second most affected country by the pandemic in the world in terms of absolute infection rates. However, due to the low test rate , experts expect significantly higher infection numbers . 

The most affected Brazilian state of São Paulo extended the exit restrictions on Wednesday until June 15. At the same time, Governor Joao Doria announced that “some activities” could be allowed again from June 1st. 

And Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro ? He continues to criticize the regional corona measures and explains that the economic consequences of the pandemic threaten to do more damage than the virus itself. “The so-called second wave is coming: recession . It will affect everyone, without exception, ”he now wrote on Facebook.

Coronavirus in Brazil's epicenter: Jair Bolsonaro's horror show

First message from Wednesday, May 27th, 2020: Horror is on the sad agenda in Brazil in view of the exploding numbers of corona infections. But as if that weren't bad enough, people in the largest country in Latin America are still being shown how their right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro is if he doesn't appear in front of television cameras or supporters.

Corona pandemic doesn't matter to Bolsonaro

This can be seen - and above all heard - in a video from a cabinet meeting in late April. By then, 3000 Brazilians had died. There are now more than 23,500. The video makes it clear how Bolsonaro and his ministers don't care about the pandemic: completely.

Because Corona is practically not an issue for the nation's leaders - and everything else is a welcome opportunity, especially for Bolsonaro himself, to say one thing after another. Expressions of force fall in rows for a good two hours. The media counted 39 curses in the video, 31 of them from the President's mouth. "It shows the vulgarity of the current government. They are like barbarians who throw the country into chaos, disregard the law and ignore the constitution, ”the opposition parties in Congress raged. "It is two hours full of swear words and madness, full of ridicule and disrespect for the country," wrote columnist Miriam Leitão in the newspaper "O Globo".

Bolsonaro against anti-corona measures

Bolsonaro berates two governors as "piece of shit" and a "bunch of crap" because they oppose him through exit restrictions. The education minister wanted to jail the Supreme Court because it granted state jurisdiction over anti-corona measures . And the Minister for Women and Human Rights wanted to arrest the governors and mayors at the same time.

Brazil reports 1,039 new deaths from coronavirus over the past 24 hours #CoronavirusPandemic #Brazil @jairbolsonaro @WHO https://t.co/0rvyRO2e9h pic.twitter.com/RWAeIMh7IZ

The video was released on Friday by the Supreme Court in connection with Justice Minister Sergio Moro's resignation two days after that session. He accuses Bolsonaro of wanting to influence the work of the federal police. The investigates several crimes in which Bolsonaro's clan is said to be involved. In the video, the president freaks out because the authority doesn't tell him about it. "I'm not going to wait for you to fuck my family and friends."

Bolsonaro insulted journalists

Such words fit like a fist to the fact that two of the largest media companies in Brazil are no longer participating in the head of state's informal press conferences. There is insufficient protection for the security of journalists, the media group Globo and the newspaper "Folha de Sao Paulo" said on Monday.

The President often makes press statements in the morning in front of the Alvorada Palace in the capital city of Brasília. Bolsonaro almost regularly insults reporters or makes obscene gestures in their direction. Bolsonaro’s fans there also insult the journalists - on Monday as “Rubbish, rats, communists”, as the Vice President of the Globo Group, Paulo Tonet Camargo, wrote in a letter to the minister responsible for national security. (with afp)

by Peter Rutkoswki

* fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen editorial network

List of rubric lists: © Florian Plaucheur / AFP