Brazil Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta Sacked by President Jair Bolsonaro Amid Disagreements Over COVID-19 Response
Mandetta made the announce on Twitter following a meeting with Bolsonaro at the presidential palace in the capital Brasilia. His resignation comes amid speculations of an exponential jump in COVID-19 cases across the country.
Brasilia, April 17: Brazil's Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said Thursday he'd been sacked by President Jair Bolsonaro, after weeks of clashes over the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Mandetta made the announce on Twitter following a meeting with Bolsonaro at the presidential palace in the capital Brasilia. Two Brazil Governors - Wilson Witzel of Rio de Janeiro and Helder Barbalho of Para Test Positive for Coronavirus.
Mandetta Announces Resignation on Twitter
Minister Sacked as Brazilians Brace for Virus Onslaught
With Brazilians increasingly ignoring health officials' warnings to stay home -- encouraged by their far-right president, who has condemned the "hysteria" over the virus -- predictions for how the pandemic will play out in the hardest-hit country in Latin America are getting dire.
Brazil, an country of 210 million people, has registered 1,532 deaths from the new coronavirus so far.
But the state of Sao Paulo alone is expecting 111,000 deaths over six months, nearly equal to the entire worldwide toll to date.
A number of states face the possibility that their healthcare systems will collapse.
They include Sao Paulo; Rio de Janeiro, the second-hardest hit; and Amazonas, a huge territory with a large number of indigenous communities that have a tragic history of being decimated by new diseases.
Veloso, the head of the main hospital fighting COVID-19 in Rio de Janeiro, says her staff are already tired, sick and running out of protective equipment.
Her hospital, the National Infectious Diseases Institute, is rushing to build a new facility with 200 intensive care beds, train new staff, and buy scarce ventilators and face masks.
What happens if they are not ready for the crush of patients expected to start later this month?
"I try not to think about that," she told AFP. "It's too much stress. When I do think about it, I think about all the deaths we'll have here, and how they will hit us unequally. The wealthiest people will not be hurt as much as the poorest, the people who live in the favelas" -- the crowded slums of tin-roof shacks that coexist, sometimes side by side, with Brazil's posh neighborhoods.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 17, 2020 01:40 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).