Brazilian President says religious services will continue despite COVID-19 outbreak

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro reportedly declared in a statement on March 26 that all essential operations, including the religious services, will remain functional during the coronavirus pandemic. He aimed the decision at the currently suspended holy sites across the populous states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Bolsonaro announced that the states must “return to normalcy” and abandon “scorched-earth policies” in his address to the state press. 

According to the decree published in the official gazette by the government, "Religious activities, of whatever nature" were now permitted as long as they complied with the "determinations" of the Health Ministry, the statement read. President of Brazil had earlier sounded contention with the coronavirus pandemic containment measures saying that the disease was “Brazilian media fantasy” that stoked mass hysteria, in a televised address to the nation. The virus has arrived in the states, the government and the dedicated authorities would deal with it, he was quoted saying. The lives have to continue, and jobs must be maintained,” Bolsonaro added. 

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President calls it 'small flu'

Brazil’s governors, however, defied the government’s stance to reopen schools and continue operating the businesses, dismissing their President’s arguments as per the state media reports. His stance has also conjured social unrest across many states in the country as citizens criticized his “contemptuous” attitude. Bolsanaro dismissed the crisis as “small flu”, despite its spread worldwide, as per media reports.

To date, over 549,298 have been contaminated with the deadly COVID-19 disease. Brazil’s president, however, was quoted saying in a press briefing that Brazilians can bathe in excrement but “nothing happens”. He was also quoted saying by a news agency that the coronavirus would not “reach that point,” and that, a Brazilian bloke could “jump in the sewage” and get out alive but nothing happens to him in Brazil, while speaking to the press in the capital, Brazilia. Brazil has recorded over 2,988 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, and at least 77 fatalities have been confirmed so far, 3 new cases emerged in the past 24 hours. 

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