Despite outbreak in China, Bolsonaro says Covid is under control

At a time when China tightens the siege against Covid-19 and European countries are monitoring small spikes in cases, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) once again defended the easing of restrictions against the health crisis and said that Brazil must return to “normal” in April.

In an interview with TV Ponta Negra, from Rio Grande do Norte, released this Wednesday (16), Bolsonaro also repeated that the plan of the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, is to downgrade the status of Covid-19 in the coming weeks.

“It should happen by the end of this month. All these precautions are no longer justified with regard to the virus. Everyone sees that this is practically over”, declared the president.

“People have practically abandoned masks and other care,” he said.

Bolsonaro’s statements come as the government monitors suspected cases of deltacron, a recombination of the delta and omicron variants of Covid. In addition, there is concern in the folder for a new outbreak of cases of the disease in China.

Minister Queiroga has said that he will declare the end of the pandemic, which is up to the WHO (World Health Organization), and label the disease as endemic in Brazil.

According to the minister’s assistants, the idea is to point out that the government has overcome the health crisis and discourage restrictions against the virus, such as the use of masks.

In general, the change from a pandemic to an endemic one occurs when the disease is no longer a global health emergency and starts to present a stable, even if high, number of cases and deaths in a given location.

“We believe that the issue of the virus, Covid, is under control. In other words, a large part of the population is immunized”, said the president, who has not been vaccinated and distorts data on safety and efficacy of doses.

“From the beginning of next month, with the decision of the Minister of Health to put an end to the pandemic, we must return to normality in Brazil”, said Bolsonaro.

Since the return of Carnival, Queiroga’s team has been trying to decipher and put on paper the minister’s will. Aides to the minister believe that it is a mistake to say that the pandemic will be over, as the WHO makes this decision.

Queiroga only has the power to end Espin (Public Health Emergency of National Importance), which was recognized by an ordinance published in February 2020. This move would be the main way to empty the restrictions against Covid, evaluate Queiroga’s assistants.

But ending the national emergency also raises concerns within the Ministry of Health. This is because it is this status that backs the endorsement for emergency use of vaccines, purchases without bidding, restrictions on imports of health supplies and other rules related to the pandemic.

In addition, Espin must be maintained while there is a risk of outbreaks and epidemics of national spread, with high severity or that may exceed the SUS response capacity, according to current rules.

In other words, the government would have to show that the current scenario in Brazil does not leave room for a further worsening of Covid-19.

That’s why a Health wing advocates a less impactful way out, such as just releasing a document guiding the relaxation of Covid restrictions, even though Bolsonaro and Queiroga maintain the lines that they won the pandemic.

Queiroga commissioned studies from his team on the scenario of the disease in Brazil. He has even met with officials to advocate for the Covid-19 status change. On Tuesday (15), the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (DEM-MG), expressed concern about the idea.

“In view of the signal, I expressed to the minister concern about the new wave of the virus, seen in recent days in China, but I committed to taking the discussion to the leaders of the Senate”, Pacheco said on social networks.

The change in the status of Covid-19 in Brazil still divides SUS managers. The councils of state health secretaries (Conass) and municipalities (Conasems) still do not defend the idea, but the City Hall of Rio and the government of the Federal District, for example, have already released the use of masks even in closed environments.

Brazil recorded 323 deaths from Covid and 50,078 cases of the disease on Tuesday. As a result, the country has lost 655,649 lives and 29,432,274 people infected with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic. Moving averages of deaths and cases continue to decline from two weeks ago. The number of deaths is now 388 per day, a 24% reduction. The number of infections reached 41,044, down 19%.

Although these numbers are lower than those recorded at the peak of Covid, they are still higher than for other diseases. In 2015, for example, Brazil recorded the worst year of dengue, with 986 deaths.