Brazil will lift the health emergency in the “next few days” decreed in February 2020 due to the arrival of the coronavirus. The decision was informed this Monday by the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga and justified that the number of deaths and infections have decreased drastically.
“Thanks to the improvement of the epidemiological scenario, the broad vaccination coverage of the population, and the assistance capacity of the SUS (the public health system), we have the conditions to announce today the end of the public health emergency,” said Marcelo Queiroga. by national network.
Queiroga said that “in the next few days a normative act will be published” to officially specify the end of the health emergency, decreed on February 3, 2020 and that allows the use of emergency vaccines and the purchase of medicines without bidding, among others. extraordinary measures against coronavirus.
“This measureNevertheless, it does not mean the end of covid-19. We will continue living with the virus“said the official.
The determination comes weeks after President Jair Bolsonaro, who relativized the disease and called it a “gripezinha”, asked Queiroga to decree the “end of the pandemic” so that Brazil returns to “normality”.
Managing the pandemic
The Bolsonaro Governmentwho will seek re-election in the October elections, is questioned for the handling of the pandemic, which leaves almost 662,000 dead in Brazil since March 2020, a figure surpassed only by the United States.
From the beginning of the health emergency, Bolsonaro tried to avoid restrictive measures to contain the virus, defended drugs without proven scientific efficacy -such as hydroxychloroquine- and sowed doubts about anticovid vaccines.
The announcement of the lifting coincides with the relaxation of measures against the coronavirus and with the drastic drop in the number of weekly deaths, with more than 75 percent of the 213 million inhabitants of Brazil vaccinated.