Despite more than a million cases of Covid-19 reported Sunday throughout Latin America and a strong spread of the disease in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro did not hesitate, Sunday, May 31, to take a walkabout , contradicting all health rules advocating physical distancing. Brazil is now the fourth country in the world in terms of the number of deaths linked to the new coronavirus. 

 "There are so many infected and deceased people, also among the indigenous peoples (of the Amazon), who are particularly vulnerable," deplored Pope Francis after his Sunday prayer, celebrated for the first time in almost three months. in front of the faithful gathered at Saint Peter's Square in Rome.

>> See our Reporters: "Populism and pandemic: the Brazilian shock"

Raï calls on Bolsonaro to resign

Faced with the spread of the disease, President Bolsonaro's call for a resumption of the football championships was not welcomed, the sports director of Sao Paulo FC and former Paris idol SG Raï calling on him to resign.

"As footballers are young and athletic, the risk of death if they catch the virus is infinitely reduced," said Jair Bolsonaro, openly against containment measures in the name of preserving the economy.

The Brazilian president then participated in a rally with his supporters in Brasilia, in front of the presidential palace, once again defying health recommendations while this time taking care not to touch the hands of the crowd.

In Sao Paulo, clashes erupted between anti-Bolsonaro demonstrators and supporters of the president who opposed the containment measures.

Washington sends hydroxychloroquine

The United States, whose President Donald Trump displays his closeness to Jair Bolsonaro, has sent Brazil two million doses of hydroxychloroquine, the use of which to treat Covid-19 is controversial, the White House announced on Sunday.

Donald Trump had created the surprise ten days ago by announcing that he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive against the new coronavirus, in defiance of the recommendations of the American health authorities.

The efficacy against Covid-19 of this antimalarial treatment has not, to date, been demonstrated by any rigorous study and several countries have prohibited its use.

No policy implemented at federal level

The Covid-19 is spreading at a galloping rate in Brazil, with measures of containment and deconfinement in a dispersed order according to the States or the cities of this country whose president Jair Bolsonaro calls for the lifting of the restrictions.

No policy has been put in place at the national level and measures to contain the pandemic have generally been much less strict than those taken in most European countries or in neighboring Argentina.

However, the first restrictions appeared in mid-March in Brazil, with in particular the closing of schools in many cities, while the country then had only a hundred confirmed cases and no deaths.

But today, this country of 210 million inhabitants with continental dimensions is one of the main centers of the pandemic and is preparing to pass the milestone of 30,000 dead.

With AFP

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