"Stop whining": President Bolsonaro castigates local measures against the Covid
President Bolsonoro during a press conference in Brasilia, March 5, 2021. AFP - EVARISTO SA
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
With more than 260,000 victims of the coronavirus and death records in recent days, Brazil is mired in the health crisis.
Some regions have therefore taken containment measures to try to curb the epidemic.
And for the first time, in Rio, bars and restaurants will have to close at 5 p.m. and a curfew is in place.
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The bars were lively Thursday evening in the Tijuca district of Rio de Janeiro, reports
our correspondent
Sarah Cozzolino
.
Carlos and his friends drank their last beer before closing at 5 p.m. decided from this Friday.
But they support the new restrictions.
“
Here in Rio we were much too relaxed.
People go to the beach, have parties, the bars are crowded.
We are really not an example for the rest of the world, he
emphasizes.
So this curfew is going to be an important step for the city.
"
A step far too shy for Andreia, who watches the bars from afar, in the square where she walks her dog.
“
I think it should be more drastic, at least in the short term,
” she says.
But we don't have a government ... So it's a very sad, very scary situation.
"
Mismanagement
But for Rafael, bar owner, the problem is above all the mismanagement of the pandemic.
"
It is useless to close bars and restaurants if everything else does not change: the agglomerations in public transport which function poorly, the field hospitals which have been closed ...
"
Informal workers will also be affected.
Without the bars in this square, Lidia will not be able to run her little children's trampoline stand because the streets will become too dangerous.
"
For those who have savings, it does not matter, but for those who have nothing, who have to work to eat and pay their bills, it is they who will pay the consequences,
" he regrets. she.
Since the pandemic, and with the end of emergency aid, Brazilian families have never been so in debt.
Brazil, the most bereaved country in the world after the United States, announced Wednesday its highest death toll in 24 hours, with 1,910 dead.
And Rio is not the only city to have taken measures to try to
curb the epidemic
.
Others have also decided on local lockdowns.
"We're not wimps"
Measures which have also provoked the anger of President Bolsonaro, who considers that they risk bringing the economy to its knees and are therefore, according to him, counterproductive, reports
our correspondent in Sao Paulo
,
Martin Bernard
.
Jair Bolsonaro addressed the health situation on the sidelines of the inauguration of a railway line in the State of Goais, in the center of the country.
“
We have to face our problems.
We're not wimps.
Stop whining,
said the president.
Until when are you going to complain?
What will become of Brazil if we decide to stop?
".
But some allies are starting to let it go, such as the Minister of the Economy himself, who insists on the importance of vaccination while Brazil has so far vaccinated less than 5% of its population.
The President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, also appealed to the Ministry of Health.
"
Show that you are not negationist through your actions, by serving as an example to the Brazilian population
", he urged.
For its part, the Brazilian Association of Covid-19 Victims refused to argue, claiming that President Bolsonaro was often misunderstood.
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