The strongest storm ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal bashes into India and Bangladesh, forcing millions to evacuate.
Brazil Is The New Epicenter Of The Global Coronavirus Pandemic
Brazil’s novel coronavirus outbreak surged to cataclysmic levels on Tuesday afternoon when the country recorded 1,179 deaths from COVID-19 ― a record daily high for a nation that now has more than 270,000 confirmed cases overall.
Brazil passed Italy and Spain on the list of countries with the most coronavirus cases last weekend, then passed the United Kingdom on Monday afternoon. Only Russia and the United States have more ― although researchers have said that a lack of testing means Brazil’s count is likely far higher than official figures suggest.Â
There are many factors that determine how bad a country’s outbreak becomes, but one unmistakable commonality between the three countries at the top is that their hard-right leaders have downplayed the severity of the crisis and embraced outlandish conspiracy theories, ensuring the outbreaks would be worse than they should have been.Â
In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro’s lax response to the coronavirus made his country’s emergence as the world’s newest coronavirus hot spot tragically inevitable.Â
“Everyone who’s been watching Brazil, who’s been seeing the numbers increase day after day, week after week, knew that it was headed in this direction,†said Anya Prusa, a senior associate at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Brazil Institute in Washington. “It’s not a surprise, but it is a real humanitarian tragedy.â€
Deep social inequality and large populations already vulnerable to infectious diseases meant that limiting the spread of the coronavirus in Brazil required an aggressive response. Instead, Bolsonaro dismissed the pandemic as a media conspiracy and the disease as a “tiny flu,†fought with governors and state officials over social distancing measures, fired one health minister and drove another to quit, and largely left Brazilians ― especially the poorest and most vulnerable ― to fend for themselves.
“Brazil went into this with a number of challenges that have been exacerbated by the government response at the very top,†Prusa said. “It is a disaster. And it didn’t need to be a disaster of this size.â€
The disaster will likely only worsen in the coming weeks as Bolsonaro continues to downplay the pandemic. Brazil’s state public health systems are reaching their breaking points. Its Indigenous populations have warned that a slow government response has put them further at risk as the virus spreads. Outbreaks in some of Brazil’s poorest communities have been met by aggressive and deadly police crackdowns rather than a robust public health response.Â
And as Brazil reaches the heights of its pandemic, it has no health minister ― the oncologist who previously held the position quit last Friday, just 28 days into his tenure, after refusing to endorse Bolsonaro’s efforts to expand the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that is not proven to work against the coronavirus, to treat infected patients.Â
The most dire predictions from the outset of Brazil’s pandemic have come true, including one from the prior former health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who forecast that the virus could quickly inundate hospitals and state public health systems.
Photos of mass graves in the Amazon region have spread globally as the virus overwhelmed public health systems in poorer and financially strapped states. On Monday, São Paulo Mayor Bruno Covas warned that the public hospitals in his city ― the largest and wealthiest in Brazil ― could reach their capacity by the end of May.Â
Joenia Wapichana, the first Indigenous woman elected to Brazil’s national Congress, told HuffPost in April that the virus would spread rapidly once it reached Indigenous lands. But despite those warnings, government agencies were slow to deliver aid to Indigenous groups or to protect their lands, The Associated Press reported this week.
Illegal raids from miners, loggers and agribusiness interests have increased, despite government guidance to avoid Indigenous lands, as the pandemic and Bolsonaro’s opposition to regulatory enforcement conspired to limit oversight from environmental agencies.Â
At least 38 Indigenous tribes now have confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, the country’s largest tribal organization. The virus has killed 89 Indigenous Brazilians in the Amazon region, the group said in a statement this week that argued the actual number of infections and deaths among tribes is likely far higher than documented.Â
Indigenous leaders also worry that the pandemic could soon reach Brazil’s isolated groups ― those that have no known contact with outside communities ― after a member of the isolated Awá Guajá people attacked a hunter from another tribe last week, according to the Forest Guardians, a group of tribal leaders that protects the Amazon rainforest from illegal incursions. The attack was likely the result of the Awá Guajá feeling increasingly threatened by outside invaders and accidentally targeting a member of a friendly tribe, the Forest Guardians said in a statement circulated by the nonprofit Survival International.Â
“If you don’t put an end to the invasions of our territory, the uncontacted Awá Guajá people will die,†the statement said. “Once again, we are warning the Brazilian government and the international community that the Awá Guajá people are currently suffering a genocide.â€
Brazil’s other potential hot spots were its dense pockets of poverty ― the informal favelas of cities like Rio de Janeiro and the suburban periphery neighborhoods of São Paulo and other metropolitan regions. Long victims of government neglect and stigma, many of those communities lack access to basic sanitation and health care, which, along with their small and tightly packed houses, leave them vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks.Â
But favela residents have seen little help from the government as the pandemic worsens.Â
“The word ‘favela’ has not been heard from any government official,†Gilson Rodrigues, a favela leader in São Paulo, said in a Facebook Live broadcast in March, Americas Quarterly reported. “We need to organize and protect ourselves.â€
Favela residents across Brazil have organized to manufacture their own hand sanitizer, monitor residents’ health, and create news apps to combat the spread of misinformation about the virus.Â
But the government’s response, at least in some parts of the country, has been to continue ramping up a deadly drug war.
In Rio de Janeiro, where Gov. Wilson Witzel, like Bolsonaro, is a supporter of hard-line public security tactics, police have continued to stage raids into favela neighborhoods to root out the drug gangs that operate within them. Rio’s police, who are among the deadliest in the world and regularly wield extrajudicial force, killed at least 10 people in one such operation this week, according to community activists. During a Tuesday operation, police shot and killed a 14-year-old boy.
“The world needs to know what is happening in Rio de Janeiro. The state of Rio de Janeiro, governed by [Witzel], is using pandemic isolation as a strategy for violent police actions,†Raull Santiago, a community activist in Rio’s Complexo do Alemão favela, tweeted Tuesday. “The [World Health Organization] says that to beat the coronavirus, we need to do social isolation. But police have been carrying out violent operations in the slums and putting us at risk of violent death.â€Â
The operations have also drawn out crowds of angry and scared residents who oppose the tactics of a police force that killed nearly five people per day a year ago.
“In Brazil, the pandemic brought deaths, thirst, hunger, extreme difficulties,†Santiago said in a follow-up tweet. “And our leaders still incite violent actions by the police. It is a lot of human rights violations.â€
Bolsonaro dismissed the pandemic as a media conspiracy and the disease as a “tiny flu,†fought with governors and state officials over social distancing measures, fired one health minister and drove another to quit, and largely left Brazilians ― especially the poorest and most vulnerable ― to fend for themselves.
Bolsonaro has pushed states and cities to abandon social isolation measures and business closures in favor of kickstarting the economy, especially as the pandemic has left many Brazilians facing food shortages and little choice but to continue working, even as the pandemic worsens.
But if Brazil doesn’t curb its outbreak, that will do little to boost economic growth.
“If you don’t contain the spread of the virus, then it doesn’t matter what economic measures you use,†Prusa said.Â
Leaders in neighboring countries like Argentina and Paraguay have openly worried about how Bolsonaro’s refusal to respond will affect their countries, where aggressive measures have limited outbreaks. Rates of deforestation, meanwhile, have continued to skyrocket in the Amazon during the pandemic, sparking fears that Brazil could experience an even worse fire season than it did in 2019 when record blazes and Bolsonaro’s environmentally destructive policies made him a pariah on the world stage.
Bolsonaro has continued to ignore the devastation. On Tuesday, he met with the heads of two major Rio de Janeiro soccer clubs about efforts to restart Brazil’s professional league.Â
Later, he sat for an interview with a prominent online journalist. Hours after Brazil’s Ministry of Health reported more than 1,100 deaths, Bolsonaro cracked a joke about chloroquine.Â
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Microsoft Windows is getting an Apple-like upgrade
Windows search is getting a ginormous upgrade with a tool called PowerToys Run, which launched Tuesday. It’s a super-duper-early-stages, but promising, search box that could put the Start menu and Windows key-R shortcut to shame.
The new tool was announced at Build, Microsoft’s annual developer event. It was held virtually this year for the first time in its history because of the coronavirus pandemic. Other highlights included new Google Docs-like features for Office and some Edge browser updates.
The new search tool pops up in the middle of your screen with a big query box, just like Spotlight. It launches with the Alt-Space shortcut, and it’s insanely fast at finding files, programs and a few other items. It’s way faster than the current Windows search tool.
The release, which is in beta for now, starts with the number zero — an indication to expect some buggy stuff, if the not-so-friendly name of the tool didn’t already give that away. Another turnoff: You have to install it from GitHub, along with a separate .NET Core program, a framework upon which PowerToys and other open-source software runs.
But Microsoft (MSFT) promises to make PowerToys Run seriously impressive. It will be a catch-all launcher box that Microsoft said could eventually be a starting point for every kind of query. For example, it could eventually run search queries on the internet for casual users — on the browser of your choice (imagine that!) — and at the same time fully replace Windows key-R for power users, who will be able to use all the same commands they’ve become familiar with.
Today, Windows search is a confusing amalgam of the Start menu, Search, Cortana and Win-R. And your options are limited. For example, you can search the internet using Windows search, but exclusively on Bing, and only with the Microsoft Edge browser.
To improve the experience, Microsoft is combining its tools and opening up development to the masses with open-source code. The possibilities are limited by the imaginations of Windows’ power users, who are a pretty imaginative bunch.
The PowerToys tool has some other nifty features, including the ability to remap keyboard shortcuts. Try doing that on a Mac.
Merkel warns against protectionism in face of coronavirus recession
German Chancellor Angela Merkel | Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images
German chancellor says ‘multilateralism faced a major challenge even before the pandemic.’
BERLIN — Countries should not resort to renationalization and protectionism in response to a “deep global recession” caused by the coronavirus crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday.
“It was … clear that multilateralism faced a major challenge even before the pandemic, and this challenge has not become smaller,” said Merkel, two days after she put forward a Franco-German plan for a €500 billion EU recovery fund.
Merkel was speaking after a videoconference with the heads of the International Labour Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization at which they discussed the economic response to the crisis.
“The answer to the pandemic can certainly not be to renationalize all international supply chains now; then everyone would pay a very high price,” Merkel said.
Asked if she had spoken to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte or Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz since Monday’s announcement, Merkel said she had not. Kurz declared Tuesday that the countries — who advocate lower EU spending and tight fiscal discipline — will present their own counter proposal.
“We are now in the phase of waiting for the proposal from the Commission,” Merkel said.
The European Commission is set to lay out its draft recovery plan next Wednesday, May 27.
UK holds its nose on Northern Irish border
The U.K. government said there will be no “international border†between Northern Ireland and Great Britain | Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images
After months of resisting the idea, the UK has accepted there will be customs checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea.
LONDON — The U.K. on Wednesday finally admitted there will be a post-Brexit trade border down the Irish Sea.
In its plan detailing how the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland will function once the U.K. leaves the EU customs union, the U.K. government said there will be no “international border†between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
That is a very different thing to a trade border — and showed the journey Britain has been on.
EU leaders had become increasingly frustrated at suggestions Britain was not taking seriously the scale of administration required to implement the Withdrawal Agreement Boris Johnson struck with Brussels last year. The deal will keep Northern Ireland in the customs union of both territories, in order to maintain an open border with the Republic of Ireland under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
It means Northern Ireland can reap the benefits of U.K. trade deals — a major argument for Brexit — but will have to comply with EU rules, placing a protective customs ring around the nation.
Former Prime Minister Theresa May allowed herself an “I told you so†moment.
For many months, Johnson appeared unwilling to accept the full implications of what he had signed up for. The prime minister told Conservative members in November: “There will not be tariffs or checks on goods coming from GB to NI that are not going on to Ireland — that’s the whole point.â€
He said that if any business is asked to fill in customs declaration paperwork, they should telephone him “and I will direct them to throw that form in the bin.â€
The U.K. got out of that one by insisting all the paperwork will be digital.
The document published this afternoon said U.K. authorities will have to apply EU customs rules to goods entering Northern Ireland, adding that it would entail “some new administrative process for traders, notably new electronic import declaration requirements, and safety and security information.â€
It insisted there would be no new customs infrastructure in Northern Ireland, before confirming that existing infrastructure for animal and food checks would be expanded to cope with the new workload. Livestock moves are already subject to checks, but food is not.
Former Prime Minister Theresa May, whose solution to the Irish border conundrum was to maintain EU customs rules and create a border down the Irish Sea, allowed herself an “I told you so†moment. During a Commons statement on the announcement, she asked Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove whether the U.K. will have to abide by EU regulations on some goods — possibly indefinitely.
Gove insisted the Northern Irish Assembly will have the chance to ditch the system in 2024, but admitted: “It is the case that there will be EU regulations … that will apply in Northern Ireland to 2024.â€
The European Commission appeared satisfied with the plan. A spokesman said the proposal “provides a stable and lasting solution to address the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland.†But officials in Brussels will study the document more closely to ensure it meets their demands on keeping the single market secure and respecting the Good Friday Agreement.
More to come
A lot of questions remain over the U.K. approach.
Britain said there will be no restrictions at all on trade moving from Northern Ireland to Great Britain. But the government will consult on how businesses will be deemed eligible for unfettered trade.
Goods heading to the EU through Northern Ireland or goods “at a clear and substantial risk of doing so†will have to pay tariffs before leaving Great Britain, where tariffs apply. But what constitutes a “substantial risk†is set to be clarified by the joint committee on the Withdrawal Agreement, which includes representatives from the U.K. government and the EU27.
The U.K. clearly took a step forward along its Brexit path with the publication of the plan.
Meanwhile, the exact processes for businesses — including the tariff compensation scheme for firms wrongly forced to pay duties — will also need to be laid out.
But the U.K. clearly took a step forward along its Brexit path with the publication of the plan, and it appears to have landed well in Brussels.
Even the Democratic Unionist Party, which threatened to bring down the government when May was in power rather than see a new border down the Irish Sea, accepted the fight had been lost.
Party leader and Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster welcomed elements of the proposal and called for assurance it would not in future “saddle individual Northern Ireland businesses with further costly administrative burdens.â€
Italian support for Fiat-Chrysler sparks political clash
Fiat-Chrysler’s call for state support from the Italian government in response to the coronavirus crisis has triggered howls of complaint from politicians pointing out that the carmaker isn’t an Italian tax resident.
Tax justice is becoming an increasingly prominent theme of crisis bailouts — with countries ranging from France to Poland arguing that there will be no cash for companies registered in foreign tax havens.
On May 16, Fiat applied for a state guarantee to cover a €6.3 billion loan. Politicians, including the No. 2 in Italy’s Democratic Party Andrea Orlando and left-wing MP Stefano Fassina, immediately cried foul that the company officially decamped from Italy six years ago, with Fiat becoming Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and moving its headquarters from Turin to Amsterdam.
“A company seeking huge funding from the Italian state should bring its headquarters back to Italy,†Orlando tweeted.
“How can the Italian Republic, in accordance with our constitution, dedicate a billion euros [to guarantee the loan] to some of the richest families in the world, residing in tax havens, when they forget millions of families pushed to the limit?†Fassina asked in Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper.
“If state aid is given to Fiat, Italian citizens have the right to know whether the company moved its tax domicile to the U.K. to obtain a tax advantage” — Tommaso Faccio, ICRICT
The government tried to cool down the debate by stressing that the money would stay in Italy.
“We are talking about … Italian factories, which produce in Italy and employ a great number of workers,” said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, while Finance Minister Roberto Gualtieri stressed that the aid would only benefit the Italian subsidiary of the group, FCA Italy, which “has its headquarters and pays taxes in our country.”
A formal decision on aid has not been made by the Italian government, and the ministry of economic development declined to comment. Fiat also declined to comment beyond its statement, which stressed the money would be “dedicated exclusively to financing FCA’s activities in Italy” and should provide “support to some 10,000 small and medium enterprises in the automotive supply chain in Italy.”
The public guarantee to cover the loan has also been questioned on other grounds. It would allegedly allow FCA’s parent company to save cash and pay a €5.5 billion dividend that is due to shareholders before the closing of the planned merger with France’s PSA Groupe, the owner of brands like Peugeot, Citroën and Opel.
Rescue loan
The aid will be granted under a so-called liquidity decree adopted during the coronavirus crisis, and only companies based in Italy are eligible. Conte and Gualtieri say that FCA Italy fulfills this condition.
But given FCA’s complex corporate structure, aid from Rome would ultimately support the whole group, which pays taxes in several European countries, including Luxembourg, the U.K. and the Netherlands.
FCA is now a multinational group controlled by a parent company registered in the Netherlands and it is subject to British tax rules, said Tommaso Faccio, the head of secretariat at the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT).
“If state aid is given to Fiat, Italian citizens have the right to know whether the company moved its tax domicile to the U.K. to obtain a tax advantage,” Faccio said, adding that the only way to get that information would be to publish country-by-country reporting that is not public.
According to former European Commission President Romano Prodi, the aid should be subject to Fiat’s commitment to invest in Italy. “If I spend money to build a house, I need to know where it will be built,†Prodi told Italian public broadcaster RAI.
Gualtieri said that’s already the case.
Merging plans
But Gualtieri’s promise might be tough to keep given next year’s merger between FCA and France’s PSA to form the fourth-largest automaker of the world. “A European champion,” as French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire called it.
The deal is currently under the scrutiny of the European Commission, which will issue a decision by June 17.
But the creation of a new car company means the debate on FCA’s tax residence is “outdated” and the discussion should rather focus on the industrial plans of the new group, said Giuseppe Berta, a professor of economic history at Bocconi University and former director of the Fiat historical archive.
“How can you talk about production and jobs in Italian factories without taking into account the fact that these elements will be defined in the industrial strategy of the group that will be born in a few months?” Berta asked, while noting that strategic choices for the new entity will be determined by the new chief executive, Carlos Tavares, who currently leads the French group.
Next year’s merger between FCA and France’s PSA to form the fourth-largest automaker | Vladimir Simicek/AFP via Getty Images
According to Carlo Calenda, an Italian MEP from the Socialists and Democrats group, the merger is precisely why FCA is asking for aid.
FCA’s parent company has sufficient resources to help its Italian subsidiary restart production, but prefers to keep it in its coffers with a view to a €5.5 billion pre-merger dividend, Calenda said.
FCA declined to comment.
Gualtieri stressed that under new Italian rules, aid beneficiaries won’t be allowed to distribute dividends in 2020 but, in the case of FCA, the pre-merger dividend would come from the Dutch-registered group holding and might happen next year. The company hasn’t said anything about reducing or postponing the dividend.
But Berta said that the pandemic crisis might put into question both the structure of the merger and the size of the dividend.
For MP Fassina, however, the question is a moral one related to FCA Chairman John Elkann, the scion of Fiat’s founding Agnelli family.
“We only ask him, as we ask every company benefiting from precious and very scarce public resources, to pay taxes in the community which is up to its chin in debt to help them,†he said.
This article is part of POLITICO’s new coverage of Competition and Industrial Policy. This coverage includes the must read Fair Play newsletter every weekday morning.Email pro@politico.eu to request a complimentary trial.
World Bank: Pandemic could force 60 million more people to live on less than $2 a day
The warning suggests deepening pessimism among economists about the scale and duration of the fallout from what the bank described as an “unprecedented crisis.”
The World Bank, which provides loans and grants to the governments of poorer countries, predicted a month ago that this year would mark a historic step back for inequality, with the pandemic “likely to cause the first increase in global poverty since 1998.”
It said in a blog post on April 20 that its “best estimate” was that 49 million people would be forced into extreme poverty, which the bank defines as having to live on less than $1.90 per day.
The worsening outlook is due to the outbreak shutting down economic activity and “erasing much of the recent progress made in poverty alleviation,” World Bank President David Malpass said in a statement.
A recent surge of cases in some countries is also forcing the bank to deploy what it considers to be its “largest and fastest crisis response” ever. It said its emergency relief efforts had already reached 100 developing countries, which are home to 70% of the world’s population.
The World Bank aims to help vulnerable communities by providing grants and loans to both individuals and businesses, as well as suspending debt payments for some of the world’s poorest countries. Overall, it has pledged at least $160 billion to combat the virus so far.
Some of the world’s poorest people are already starting to feel the pain.
Migrant workers across the globe have been losing their jobs as the pandemic stops work in various industries. As a result, the World Bank estimates that global remittances, or money sent home to families, could drop by 20%, or about $100 billion, this year.
Tens of millions of people in Africa may become destitute as a result of the crisis, human rights chiefs warned Wednesday.
“We cannot afford to stand idly by and hope this most viral and deadly of diseases bypasses Africa, which is home to many of the world’s poorest countries who are simply not in position to handle such a pandemic,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Solomon Dersso said in a joint statement.
The World Bank said last month that it expected people in sub-Saharan Africa would suffer the most. Currently, 39 of the World Bank’s 100 target countries are there, and at least 23 million residents of the region are projected to be heading for extreme poverty because of the coronavirus outbreak.
South Asia is also likely to suffer. In addition to Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, World Bank economists said last month that India, one of the world’s most populous countries, was estimated to see “the largest change in the number of poor,” with about 12 million affected.
“The places where the virus is taking its highest toll depends primarily on two factors,” analysts at the bank wrote in a blog post. “The impact of the virus on economic activity and … the number of people living close to the international poverty line.”
— CNN’s Sarah Dean contributed to this report.
Female Fortune 500 CEOs reach an all-time high, but it’s still a small percentage
Even though the number of female CEOs is up, that’s still only 7.4% of the Fortune 500 ranked businesses compiled annually by the magazine.
Last year there were 33, which was up from 24 from 2018. And to really put things in perspective, 20 years ago there were only two female-led companies, according to Fortune.
New additions to the list who took over the CEO role from male predecessors include Carol Tomé with UPS as of June 1, Heyward Donigan of Rite Aid, Sonia Syngal from Gap Inc., Kristin C. Peck with animal health company Zoetis and Jennifer Johnson with Franklin Resources.
Of the 37 female CEOs, some are leaders of companies that debuted on the Fortune 500 for the first time this year, according to Fortune: Barbara R. Smith, the CEO of materials business Commercial Metals and Nazzic S. Keene, CEO of government information technology company Science Applications International.
A study last year from S&P Global Market Intelligence found that public companies with female CEOs or CFOs often were more profitable and had better stock price performance.
That study suggests that boards held the female CEOs and CFOs to a higher standard than the men before hiring them.
But even though women are making significant strides to break through, there’s still a lack of racial diversity. Nearly all are white.
Only three of this year’s Fortune 500 female CEOs are women of color, according to Fortune: Gap Inc.’s Syngal, Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su and Yum China CEO Joey Wat.
Bed Bath & Beyond’s Mary Winston was the first black woman to be a Fortune 500 CEO since Xerox’s Ursula Burns stepped down a few years ago and Winston was replaced with a permanent CEO, according to Fortune. No Latinas hold any CEO roles either.
And again, while there is a record high of women CEOs on the Fortune 500 list, it’s important to note that many of these female leaders are ranked at the bottom of the list in smaller companies. According to Fortune, only seven women run Fortune 100 companies. The CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra, runs the largest.
Brazil records its worst daily death toll from coronavirus
The Latin American country confirmed a record of 1,179 deaths and 17,408 new infections on Tuesday, its health ministry announced Tuesday, raising overall deaths since the start of the outbreak to 17,971, and 271,628 cases.
Sao Paulo state alone reported a record number of deaths on Tuesday, with 324 deaths in the past 24 hours.
When asked about Brazil’s skyrocketing numbers, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was mulling on a travel ban on Brazil.
“We are considering it,” Trump said, adding: “We hope that we’re not going to have a problem. The governor of Florida is doing very, very well testing — in particular Florida, because a big majority come in to Florida. Brazil has gone more or less herd, and they’re having problems.
“I worry about everything, I don’t want people coming in here and infecting our people,” Trump said, “I don’t want people over there sick either.”
Amid the spiraling health crisis, Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved a proposed law, which would make use the use of personal protection masks in public spaces mandatory.
The proposed law would require people to wear any form of face covering in areas that are accessible to the public, including parks, sidewalks, public transportation and even private buildings where there is a high level of foot traffic. Individuals not wearing masks would be fined up to $52.
The proposal needs approval by the Senate and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who rarely wears facial coverings. It is unclear when the Senate vote will happen.
Health system on the brink
Brazil’s alarming numbers come days after Sao Paulo’s mayor warned that its health system could be overwhelmed very soon if residents don’t follow social distancing guidelines. Officials in the major city of 12 million have declared a five-day holiday in a bid to get residents to stay home.
By Monday, Brazil achieved the grim record of having the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, behind the United States and Russia.
Yet Bolsonaro continues to dismiss the threat of the virus, saying quarantines and lockdowns could have a worse impact on Brazil’s economy.
He has repeatedly dismissed Covid-19 as a “little flu” and urged businesses to reopen, even as many governors scramble to implement social isolation measures and slow the spread.
The country lost its second health minister in a month last week. Nelson Teich stepped down after clashing with Bolsonaro over the country’s coronavirus strategy. In April, Bolsonaro fired his predecessor, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, after a prolonged standoff.
Teich clashed with Bolsonaro over the use of malaria drugs to treat the virus and social isolation measures.
Despite the political crisis, the populist leader continues to tout chloroquine as a potential wonder drug against the new coronavirus — like his US counterpart Trump — even though it is an unproven treatment for Covid-19.
Bolsonaro tweeted on Wednesday that there will be new guidelines to expand the use of chloroquine.
“Today we will have a new protocol on chloroquine” issued by the Ministry of Health, Bolsonaro wrote, calling it “a hope, according to the many who have used it.”
Brazil’s medical authority approved the use of hydroxychloroquine — which has been described as the less toxic derivative of chloroquine — in April in serious cases of coronavirus if the doctor and patient agree. Bolsonaro has since pushed for approval to use the drug in less serious cases.
It follows Trump’s claim on Monday that he is taking daily doses of hydroxychloroquine, even though medical experts, the US Food and Drug Administration, and at least one study have questioned its efficacy and warn of potentially harmful side effects.
CNN’s Tatiana Arias contributed to this report.
Coronavirus Live Updates: All 50 States Have Begun To Reopen In Some Form
HuffPost reporters around the world are tracking the pandemic and the measures being taken to flatten the curve of transmission.
Read the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic below. (To see the latest updates, you may need to refresh the page. All times are Eastern. For earlier updates on the pandemic, go here.)
All 50 States Have Now Begun To Reopen In Some Form — 5/20/20, 9:00 a.m. ET
Connecticut began to modestly ease some coronavirus restrictions on Wednesday, becoming the final state — out of the 42 that had issued stay-at-home orders — to start reopening in some form during the pandemic.
The Nutmeg state will now allow people to eat in outdoor sections of restaurants and visit retail shops. Offices, outdoor museums and zoos are also allowed to reopen.
Connecticut is taking “baby steps,†Gov. Ned Lamont (D) told CNN. “We have followed the metrics, hospitalization is down, fatalities are down. We have a lot of [personal protective equipment] right now. We have the gowns and masks. And finally, we have the contact tracing in place.â€
Some governors who never issued statewide stay-at-home orders, like Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), loosened restrictions earlier this month on salons, tattoo parlors and other businesses.
— Hayley Miller
Brazil Records Grim New Milestone As Daily Death Toll Rockets — 5/20/20, 6:25 a.m. ET
The daily COVID-19 death toll in Brazil hit 1,179 on Tuesday, setting a new record for fatalities recorded in a single day by any country.
The figure is more than 250 more than the 919 deaths recorded by Italy in late March when it was the epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak.
More than 18,000 people have now died in Brazil, according to official data, while 271,628 cases have been recorded, placing the country third behind the U.S. and Russia in total number of infections.
However, HuffPost Brazil reported that the true death toll is likely to be even higher due to the slow processing of laboratory tests.
On Tuesday, President Jair Bolsonaro doubled down on chloroquine as a possible remedy as Donald Trump said he is considering a travel ban from Brazil.
— Marcella Fernandes
Radicalized Instagram Stars Are Mainstreaming COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories — 5/20/20, 6:00 a.m. ET
HuffPost’s Jesselyn Cook reviewed Instagram accounts of more than a dozen seemingly radicalized influencers who have been using their platforms to push coronavirus misinformation. They try to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci, claim that face masks are harmful, and push 5G conspiracy theories. With their large, dedicated followings, these women are in a unique position to open people’s minds to false and dangerous information.
— Liza Hearon
Indian Government Data Questioned As COVID-19 Cases Rocket — 5/20/20, 5:45 a.m. ET