Queiroga ends the emergency due to Covid and recognizes that he cannot force an end to restrictions

The Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, signed this Friday (22) the decree declaring the end of the health emergency caused by Covid-19.​

Queiroga stated that the main change is “this issue of restricting, in an unreasonable way, individual freedoms.” He acknowledged, however, that there is no guarantee that ending the emergency will ban mayors and governors from charging for the use of masks, among other measures to combat the new coronavirus.

“If manager ‘a, b, or c’ wants to do it differently, let him do it,” Queiroga told the press.

The end of Espin (Public Health Emergency of National Importance) meets a desire by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to reinforce the speech that he has overcome the health crisis, despite the federal administration being at the center of criticism for more than 660 thousand deaths from new coronavirus.

The change also forces federal, state and municipal managers to adapt rules related to the pandemic.

The minister set a period of 30 days for the end of the emergency to take effect. The idea is that, until then, managers change the texts they want to keep active.

The ordinance should be published in an extra edition of this Friday’s Official Gazette.

States and municipalities have even charged up to three months, but the Bolsonaro government’s interpretation is that, if necessary, some rules may have their validity extended.

“The ordinance comes to ratify what already exists in practice. How can we talk about a health emergency if Carnival is happening today?”, Queiroga said to the press after signing the ordinance.

The government still has doubts about the impact of the end of Espin for some laws, such as 13,979, which guides the adoption of isolation, compulsory vaccination, use of a mask, among other measures. Bolsonaro boycotted these restrictions during the pandemic.

The executive secretary of Health, Rodrigo Cruz, said that the government is considering questioning the Federal Supreme Court (STF) about the validity of this law after the change in the status of the health crisis. The government’s idea is to empty this rule to try to make it difficult for mayors and governors to make decisions different from those guided by Bolsonaro.

The Minister of Health and Bolsonaro even promised to end the pandemic (global health emergency) in Brazil and declared that Covid-19 has become an endemic disease, a scenario in which the disease has a stable number, even if high, and in a specific location.

as showed the Sheet, the minister modulated the speech when he was alerted by assistants that he has no power to end the pandemic. This task falls to the WHO (World Health Organization). In addition, pointing out the disease as endemic requires longer analysis time to ensure that there is no risk of new outbreaks.

Among the most sensitive rules that are impacted by the ordinance is the emergency authorization for the use of vaccines, such as Coronavac, and medicines for Covid. Anvisa’s board must approve a resolution to extend this permission for one year.

Queiroga wants to apply Coronavac only to children and adolescents. The immunizer is one of the main political weapons of João Doria (PSDB), former governor of São Paulo and potential candidate for the Planalto.​

The minister took advantage of the end of Espin event to criticize Coronavac. “As a primary regimen in adults, it is unsupported,” he said.

He also stated that this vaccine does not have approval from the main health agencies, such as the US and Europe, and did not guarantee that he will indicate the use of the immunizer to children aged 3 and 4 years, if Anvisa approves the request of the Butantan Institute.

“If Anvisa approves it, it’s a conditional one. There it is discussed,” declared the minister.

The federal government declared the beginning of the health emergency on February 4, 2020, in an ordinance signed by Luiz Henrique Mandetta (União-MS), then Minister of Health.

Espin provided the basis for managers to prepare for the fight against Covid. It allowed, for example, simpler hiring, without bidding, of services and employees.

It also set up a framework for planning responses to the pandemic, led by the COE (Center for Emergency Operations in Public Health), which was abandoned by the government during the crisis.

Several laws, ordinances, in addition to state and municipal rules, put Espin as a kind of expiration date. Since February, Health began to map which measures have to be adapted to the end of the emergency. Among them, there are rules on remote work, telemedicine, release of funds linked to the pandemic, among others.

The ordinance signed this Friday (22) has four articles. It states that the ministry will guide states and municipalities on the “continuity of actions” that make up the National Contingency Plan for Covid, “based on the constant technical assessment of possible risks to Brazilian public health and the necessary actions to face them”.

“Starting at 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 the president in March, when the promise was still to end the pandemic.

Espin is regulated by a 2011 ordinance. The text states that an emergency must be declared in outbreaks and epidemics with the following characteristics: they present a risk of national dissemination, are produced by an unexpected infectious agent, can reinsert an eradicated disease in Brazil, have high severity or extrapolate the SUS response capacity.

Emergency can also be declared in situations of disaster and lack of assistance to the population.

The government has already adopted the emergency for 18 months, starting in November 2015, because of the Zika virus outbreak and its association with microcephaly.

The core of the change signed by Queiroga is 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.

The federal government has already recommended dispensing with the use of masks in work environments in states and municipalities with a “low” or “moderate” number of Covid cases, but the measure is still far from previous promises by Bolsonaro and Queiroga to end the pandemic. pandemic or prevent the mandatory use of masks.

In a note, Saúde said that it considered the SUS response capacity and the improvement in the pandemic scenario to end the emergency. “High vaccine coverage is one of the main reasons for the drop in Covid transmission.”

The end of Espin also extinguishes Secovid (Extraordinary Secretariat to Combat Covid-19), a structure created by Queiroga to coordinate actions in the pandemic.

The national secretary of Health Surveillance, Arnaldo Medeiros, said that the monitoring of Covid-19 will not be changed. He said that testing, contact monitoring and genomic surveillance policies for the disease will be maintained.

The executive secretary of Health, Rodrigo Cruz, said that the end of Espin also does not change the schedule for transferring resources to states and municipalities.

The Covid-19 pandemic officially caused the death of more than 660 thousand Brazilians. Bolsonaro decided to ignore recommendations from health entities, such as the WHO, and boycotted distancing, the use of masks and discouraged vaccination against Covid, especially for children. He also promoted the manufacture and use of ineffective Covid-19 drugs, such as hydroxychloroquine, now stranded in federal and municipal stockpiles.