RIO DE JANEIRO
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro insisted Wednesday that there will be “no national lockdown,” ignoring growing calls from health experts a day after the nation saw its highest number of COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours since the pandemic began.
Brazil’s Health Ministry registered 4,195 deaths Tuesday, becoming the third country to exceed the 4,000 daily mark as Bolsonaro’s political opponents demanded stricter measures to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. Brazil has now recorded nearly 341,000 COVID-19 deaths, second only to the death toll in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University.
But Bolsonaro, who has dismissed the disease as “a little flu,” has consistently resisted pressure to impose health restrictions on his country.
As Victoria reopens to more than 100 international travellers today,
The Agereports that some hotel quarantine staff employed by Healthcare Australia are still working at more than one site across Melbourne, contravening a key recommendation from the state’s hotel quarantine inquiry.
Emails obtained by
The Age dated April 1 show Healthcare Australia told select staff their second jobs were a breach of their employment conditions “and subsequently a breach of the contract between HCA and [COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria]”.
In other local news,
Scott Morrison and Greg Hunt announced they would pressure the European Commission over 3.1 million undelivered AstraZeneca doses, although as
Rio de Janeiro Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro once again warned of changes at state-led Petrobras in a move that raised the specter of renewed government interference at the company that could lead to changes in its policy for pricing transportation fuels
Not registered? We could change the pricing policy there, Bolsonaro said April 7.
Bolsonaro nominated former Army General Joaquim Silva e Luna to be Petrobras new CEO in February, following the president s trend of naming former military officials to top spots, in a move that is expected to give Bolsonaro a greater voice in company decisions. Bolsonaro, a former Army captain, considers former military officers more loyal to his policies.
Examples from Brazil and Serbia. By Antje Bauer
Unclear image: Reflection of a giant puppet of Brazilian President Jair Bolsanaro. Alternative facts have become the epitome of the infinite possibilities found on the internet and online media to mislead users since Donald Trump’s inauguration. For many users, opinions and beliefs are truer than proven facts. Politicians use their powers of persuasion and manipulation to bind their followers and find new ones. One example is the propaganda machinery of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, which contributed to his election victory in 2018 and helped cover up the government’s failure to combat the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Our author Philipp Lichterbeck, who lives in Brazil, explains this. We also look at how NGOs and journalists are joining forces to combat the rampant spread of mis- and disinformation with fact-checking platforms so that facts and opinions can once again be separated.