Thousands gather in support of Bolsonaro despite Brazil’s COVID crisis Coronavirus pandemic News

The far-right Brazilian president has come out in favor of treating the pandemic in the Senate’s investigation into Jair Bolsonaro.

Thousands of people have gathered across Brazil in support of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has widely denounced the treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the steady rise in deaths and infections.

Demonstrators gathered in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and the capital Brasilia, and thousands of people gathered on the Cabinet of Ministers as Bolsonaro flew over a helicopter.

“This is a critical moment and Bolsonaro needs the support of the people,” Edvaldo de Paulo, a 60-year-old protester, told the Brazilian news agency AFP.

Bolsonaro has continued to downplay the seriousness of COVID-19, dismissing it as a “little flu” earlier in the pandemic, and dismissing public health measures such as closures, despite Brazil continuing the coronavirus crisis.

South American nation It exceeded 400,000 dead It is linked to COVID-19 on Friday – the second largest in the world after the United States – and has so far recorded more than 14.6 million infections, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

More than half of those deaths were recorded in 2021 alone, while April was the deadliest month since the virus began spreading to Brazil last year.

Experts say they have helped transmit new and easier variants of coronavirus, and many have blamed Bolsonaro for not taking steps to contain COVID-19.

Last week, the Brazilian Senate he opened the investigation how the government handled the pandemic, including the Amazon city health center Manaus was left without oxygen at the beginning of the year.

Bolsonaro dismissed the criticism, however, saying last week that his government would not “accept this policy of staying home and shut everything down.”

Supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are praying that they are taking part in the Sao Paulo protest [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]

The Brazilian government has also been criticized for failing to secure and distribute COVID-19 vaccines quickly.

The country’s regulator gave the green light in January to two COVID-19 vaccines – AstraZeneca and Coronavac – and also approved the yet-to-be-acquired Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson owners.

Last week, Russian Sputnik V vaccine developers criticized Brazil for refusing to import jab, saying the decision was politically motivated.

Meanwhile, poor and marginalized communities across the country continue to carry the burden of the virus millions of people are also hungry in the midst of the crisis.