Brazil decreed the end of the COVID-19 health emergency

Brazil's Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, justified on Monday the end of the state of “emergency” in force since 2020 due to covid-19, but clarified that this does not mean that the pandemic has ended, since the virus “continues to circulate”.

The “state of emergency in public health” was decreed on February 3, 2020, before the first case was confirmed in the country, and allowed the adoption of hundreds of regulations to address the pandemic that will now be gradually repealed, the minister said about the “bureaucratic” nature of the new resolution.

“The decision recognizes what we are currently experiencing in Brazil,” Queiroga said at a press conference, after he reported on Sunday night the revocation of the state of health emergency, a measure similar to the one that Uruguay adopted on April 5.

The minister stressed that it is neither “ending the pandemic” nor is it altering the rating, since that is the responsibility of the World Health Organization (WHO), but indicated that “countries are sovereign to make their own decisions, according to their own situations”.

In the case of Brazil, he pointed out that “the decision recognizes what we are experiencing” at this time, with the steady drop in the number of infections and deaths that has been observed for more than two months, once the last and virulent wave, caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus, was overcome.

This Sunday, in fact, Brazil recorded 22 deaths from covid-19, which was the lowest figure since March 29, 2020, and added 2,541 new infections, after at the beginning of this year it had reached close to 300,000 new cases per day.

Despite the new scenario, Brazil remains behind the United States and India as the third most affected country in the world by the pandemic, with 661,960 deaths and 30,252,618 cases, according to the latest official data, released this Sunday.

Queiroga welcomed the improvement in recent weeks and attributed it above all to society's response to the immunization plan, as well as to the fact that 73 per cent of the 213 million Brazilians already have the full vaccination schedule.

In any case, he stressed that “covid has not ended and will not end in the coming times” and that “all public policies” that have allowed the country's health system to be strengthened will be maintained, as will the coronavirus vaccination program continue.

It also ensured that the health system will remain on alert and will continue to be “prepared” for a “possible” worsening of the situation, despite the fact that this possibility is considered very remote by the authorities.

With the continuous improvement of the health scenario, in recent months all the restrictions imposed by the regional and municipal governments have also gradually fallen, including the mandatory use of masks, which has already ended throughout the country, both outdoors and indoors.

“We are very calm,” said Queiroga, who even stressed that this week the Rio de Janeiro Carnival parades will be held, massive parties that had been canceled in 2021 and last February due to the health situation.

“In Carnaval, masks are worn, but not those that have been worn” because of the pandemic, said Queiroga, who pointed out that the fact that parades of samba schools that gather tens of thousands of people have been authorized is one of the indications that Brazil has a “balanced epidemiological scenario.”

President Jair Bolsonaro, who from the very beginning of the crisis has minimized the severity of the pandemic, did not speak, at least immediately, on the end of the health emergency, although since last March he had already anticipated that it would be announced in April, as in fact has happened.

(With information from EFE)

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