Jair Bolsonaro calls Governors 'tyrants' over new lockdown, says 'time to reopen economy'

Amid a major crisis that health services in Brazil have suffered, President Jair Bolsonaro has described "tyrants" state governors and mayors for imposing lockdowns to contain the coronavirus outbreak. The Brazilian president observed that his government had already done everything to control the spread of the virus and rushed to state that "it is now time to reopen the economy."

The biggest collapse of health services in Brazilian history: Fiocruz

Bolsonaro made this statement even as the Health Ministry of Brazil has repeatedly alarmed the government over the lack of intensive care beds in the hospitals of the country. Brazil's top health institute— Fiocruz also recently observed that the situation in the country was "extremely critical," and that "the studies by researchers have suggested it is the biggest collapse of the health care services in the history of Brazil," reports in US media said.
 
However, Bolsonaro who turned 66 recently as he celebrated his birthday, has argued that the mandatory quarantine measures will only damage the economy and it would be worse than the impact of coronavirus itself. He also called out on the Brazilians earlier this month and asked them to "stop worrying about the pandemic situation." Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic in Brazil has led to widespread criticism that his government has received from fellow countries.

'Over 2,000 people dying every day due to Covid in Brazil'

Over 290,000 people have succumbed to Covid-19 in Brazil since the start of the pandemic. According to US' Johns Hopkins University, the country has at least 12 million active cases while over 2,000 people on average are dying due to Covid-19 in Brazil every day. It must also be noted that the deadly P.1 variant of SARS Cov-2 was first identified in Brazil and researchers have pointed out that vaccines are less effective on patients who are identified with this variant.
 
Brazil to date is facing challenges in rolling out the vaccinations for its citizens, while it has procured doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and CoronaVac of China, both vaccines are two-dose regimens. Bolsonaro government meanwhile has also placed orders for Russia's Sputnik V, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Jhonson & Jhonson vaccines.