Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
Newsflash/@jairmessias.bolsonaro
Brazil’s President who has criticised isolation as a measure against COVID-19 has said that “we are all going to die some day” so we should fight the disease “like men”.
President Jair Bolsonaro has been an outspoken critic of quarantining and social distancing in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and yesterday went out for a walk in the streets of Brazil’s capital Brasilia, as can be seen in the video.
He then gave a press conference in which he said: “Do we have a problem with the virus? Yes, we do. Nobody denies that. We must take the correct measures with the elderly, with those at risk. Now, employment is essential.
“It’s a reality, the virus is here, We are going to gave to face it, but face it like men, not like a boy. We are going to face the virus with reality, that’s life. We are all going to die one day. Do we want to save lives? Yes we do.”
In the video, Bolsonaro can be seen visiting a market in the capital Brasilia, stopping to speak to shoppers and ignoring social distancing advice. He justified his stroll around the market by saying “it is Sunday so there not many people in the street” and saying he wanted to hear peoples’ needs.
Bolsonaro’s office had been using the hashtag “BrazilCan’tStop” in a campaign to focus on the country’s economy in the face of the virus, but federal judge Laura Bastos in Rio de Janeiro banned it on Saturday, ruling that Brazilians should not be encouraged to leave their homes.
The president has previously made global headlines for referring to COVID-19 as a “little flu”.
Brazil’s Minister of Health Luiz Henrique Mandetta has warned citizens to stay home as cases of COVID-19 rise in the country, seemingly going against Bolsonaro’s claims that the country must continue working.
Mandetta said: “We tell people to stop, the number of accidents goes down, traumas go down and we increase the number of beds in ICUs for when we need them,”
The governors of some Brazilian states, including economic hubs Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, have brought in widespread restrictions on businesses and told citizens to stay at home to stop the spread of the virus.
According to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University, Brazil has suffered 4,256 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 136 deaths.
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