Queiroga retreats and gives up on decreeing the end of the pandemic now

After promising to end the Covid-19 pandemic by the end of March, a measure that is only up to the WHO (World Health Organization), the Ministry of Health confirmed this Wednesday (30) that it should deliver milder easing of the health crisis. .

The idea is to overturn, until next Friday (1st), the charge for the Covid-19 detection test of vaccinated passengers who enter Brazil, in addition to waiving the quarantine period, but not the exam, of those who have not been immunized.

The folder is also evaluating whether this week it can repeal the federal government’s rules on the use of masks in work environments.

Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga and President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) even promised to end the pandemic in Brazil and declared that Covid-19 had become an endemic disease.

The plan was to reinforce the version that the government has overcome the health crisis, in addition to discouraging the use of masks and other protective measures against the virus.

as showed the sheet, Minister Queiroga modulated his speech when he was alerted by assistants that he has no power to end the pandemic. The minister can only revoke Espin (Public Health Emergency of National Importance), recognized in February 2020. This would be the main way to empty restrictions against Covid.

But the minister was also warned that revoking Espin has a high cost, because it is this status that gives backing to the emergency use of vaccines, purchases without bidding and other rules related to the pandemic.

“Although it is a discretionary act of the minister, [encerrar a emergência sanitária] depends on a series of analyses”, Queiroga told the press this Wednesday (30), recognizing that he will not yet declare the end of this status in the coming days, as he had promised.

“In Anvisa alone, there are 70 resolutions due to the health emergency. And here at the Ministry of Health, more than 170”, the minister also said.

Queiroga said that the ministry is working to “harmonize” measures that are already being taken by states and municipalities, such as releasing the use of masks in some places. He also acknowledged that he will not have the power to compel a public manager to revoke rules on the use of protection.

“We are also discussing with the Ministry of Labor the possibility of making the use of masks more flexible in work environments. We are discussing some relationships, legal issues, with the expectation of publication soon”, said the executive secretary of the Ministry of Health, Rodrigo Cruz .

as showed the sheetafter desiccating the promise to end the pandemic, Health started to aim at the repeal of rules that are considered unnecessary at this moment, in which Covid cases and deaths are falling, such as the restriction to export medicines, oxygen and others health items.

The end of charging for Covid tests to vaccinated travelers should take effect at airports and at land and water borders. The changes were suggested by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) last week. The final decision will be made official in an ordinance by the Ministry of Health, the Civil House, the Ministry of Justice and Infrastructure.

According to the current rule, anyone who enters Brazil by international flight must present a negative result in a test for Covid and a vaccination certificate.

If not vaccinated, in addition to presenting the test, the passenger must undergo quarantine for up to 14 days. This isolation can be waived from the fifth day onwards, as long as the traveler is asymptomatic.

On March 3, the president published a photo next to Queiroga and said that the minister “is studying to downgrade the Covid-19 situation in Brazil to endemic”.

Bolsonaro reinforced the idea, which is not within the reach of the Brazilian government, on the 16th. .

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.

In recent weeks, Queiroga presented the scenario of the pandemic and an outline of the flexibilities to the presidents of Powers.

The declaration of a health emergency is delimited by a 2011 ordinance. The text states, in summary, that Brazil should enter this status when faced with outbreaks and epidemics with a risk of national dissemination, produced by unexpected infectious agents, presenting high severity or overload the SUS.