The Brazilian government continues its smear campaign against the containment measures. The country, the most affected by the Covid-19 epidemic in Latin America, could be faced in a month with a "collapse of (its) economy", warned Thursday, May 7, the Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes, a few weeks before the peak of the coronavirus.

"The alert is serious," warned the minister. So far "the people have money in their hands", but "in 30 days it could be that things start to run out on the shelves (of the shops), that production is disorganized and that we enter in a system not only of economic collapse but of social disintegration. "

The ultra-liberal minister refers in particular to the impact on the first economy of Latin America of containment measures imposed by a majority of governors and mayors, supported by the Supreme Court which granted them decision-making autonomy in the fight against the coronavirus.

Measures that are not relaxed, the country of 210 million inhabitants seeing its contamination curve of the Covid-19 progress at a very worrying rate. It thus reached 135,106 cases on Thursday evening, with 9,146 deaths. These figures, which reveal an increase of 610 deaths in the last 24 hours, are also largely underestimated, according to the scientific community.

In large urban centers like Sao Paulo and Rio, the two main sources of contamination, but also in the cities of Pernambuco (northeast) or the Amazon, like Manaus, the intensive care units of hospitals are already almost saturated.

Government more concerned with unemployment

Far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who was with Mr. Guedes, took the opportunity to reiterate his opposition to the containment measures.

It was after a visit, not foreseen in his program, to the President of the Supreme Court, Dias Toffoli, that the Head of State spoke. "We know the problem of the virus, and we have to save lives," he said. "But there is a problem which concerns us more and more: (...) the question of unemployment, of the economy which is at a standstill."

"The fight against the virus cannot do more damage than the virus itself," said Jair Bolsonaro. The latter often downplayed the health threat, even calling the coronavirus a "little flu" for a long time. He has also encouraged the most loyal of his supporters to take to the streets in recent weeks to protest loudly against the confinement.

With AFP

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