COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil


The COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was confirmed to have spread to Brazil on 25 February 2020, when a man from São Paulo who had traveled to Italy tested positive for the virus. The disease had spread to every federative unit of Brazil by 21 March. On 19 June 2020, the country reported its one millionth case and nearly 49,000 reported deaths. One estimate of under-reporting was 22.62% of total reported COVID-19 mortality in 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a variety of responses from federal, state and local governments, having an impact on politics, education, the environment, and the economy. On 27 March 2020 Brazil announced a temporary ban on foreign air travelers and most state governors have imposed quarantines to prevent the spread of the virus. President Jair Bolsonaro perpetuated conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 treatments and its origins, and was accused of downplaying effective mitigations and pursuing a strategy of herd immunity. In October 2021, a congressional panel recommended criminal charges against the president for his handling of the pandemic, including crimes against humanity.
As of, Brazil, with confirmed cases and deaths, has the third-highest number of confirmed cases and second-highest death toll from COVID-19 in the world, behind only those of the United States and of India.

Timeline

2019

November

  • 27 November: Two raw sewage samples collected independently on 27 November 2019 in Santa Catarina, Brazil, will later detect SARS-CoV-2, 66 days in advance of the first COVID-19 confirmed case in the Americas. Subsequent samplings are positive on 11 December 2019 and 20 February 2020. These samples can show that SARS-CoV-2 was circulating in Brazil at least as early as late November 2019. However, this is highly contested by the scientific consensus which shows that the virus emerged in early December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Thus, it is highly unlikely that it was circulating in Brazil before early 2020. Researchers from the Institute of Tropical Medicine and international colleagues showed in the scientific journal Science that the first sustained transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil occurred between late February and early March 2020.

    2020

On 28 January 2020, Brazil's Ministry of Health announced that a suspected case of COVID-19 was being investigated in Belo Horizonte, involving a student who had recently returned from Wuhan, China. Ministry also announced that they was investigating two other suspected cases in Porto Alegre and Curitiba.
On 3 February, it was announced that the Brazilian government would assist in helping citizens in Wuhan return to the country; on 5 February, two planes were sent to Wuhan to repatriate 34 citizens. The citizens and all other crew were to be quarantined and monitored for 18 days at a Brazilian Air Force base in Anápolis. They were released ahead of schedule on 23 February, after repeatedly testing negative.
On 25 February, the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Brazil was announced by the Health Department of São Paulo – a 61-year-old man who had returned from Lombardy, Italy. A second case was confirmed soon after in another person who had recently returned from Italy. On 28 February, scientists of the University of São Paulo's Tropical Medicine Institute and the Adolfo Lutz Institute reported that they had sequenced the genomes of these two cases, which had been separately introduced from Northern Italy to Brazil on two occasions. In an address on 6 March, President Jair Bolsonaro advised residents to "strictly follow the experts' recommendations as the best protective measure", but that "there is no reason to panic".
On 12 March, it was reported that Bolsonaro's press secretary Fábio Wajngarten had tested positive for COVID-19, prompting increased monitoring of Bolsonaro and his cabinet. Wajngarten had also interacted with U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence during Bolsonaro's visit to Miami, Florida on 7 March. The number of cases within the cabinet began to increase, including Minister of Mines and Energy Bento Albuquerque, and President of the Federal Senate Davi Alcolumbre; by 20 March, Brazil had the second-largest number of cases among members of a federal cabinet, overtaking Iran and behind only France.
On 13 March, the cruise ship Silver Shadow arrived from the Bahamas and docked in Recife, Pernambuco, bearing 318 passengers and 291 crew members, including one suspected case of COVID-19. The ship was isolated by health authorities. On 17 March, Brazil recorded its first death. At this time, there were 291 confirmed cases in the country. By 20 March, state health departments reported almost 1,000 confirmed cases across 23 of 26 states and also in the Federal District. By 21 March, all Brazilian states had reported at least one confirmed case of COVID-19, with the most recent being Roraima. In the month since Brazil's first confirmed case, Brazil had 2,915 confirmed cases and 77 deaths.
On 28 March, the Ministry of Health reported that Brazil had 3,904 confirmed cases and 114 deaths, suggesting a mortality rate of 2.9%. Approximately 90% of deaths were people over 60 years of age, and most were men. In 84% of deaths, patients had at least one risk factor, most commonly heart disease, followed by diabetes and pneumopathy.

April

  • 6 April: President Jair Bolsonaro threatened to fire the Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, after they clashed. Following criticism, Bolsonaro temporarily backed down.
  • 9 April: The federal government sent out its first financial assistance to the public. Over 2.5 million people received R$600.
  • 10 April: Brazil confirmed the thousandth coronavirus-related death, as the number of confirmed cases neared 20,000.
  • 14 April: The Ministry of Health reported a total of 25,262 confirmed cases and 1,532 confirmed deaths. Over 14,000 people were declared recovered, although they were not confirmed virus-free, only discharged from a hospital or asymptomatic.
  • 16 April: President Bolsonaro fired the Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, over disagreements about social distancing guidelines. He said he would appoint a health minister who favored reopening businesses "as quickly as possible". Shortly afterwards, Nelson Teich was appointed to replace him.
  • 20 April: Several cities started to ease social isolation guidelines in favor of contact tracing. Some retail stores were allowed to open as long as customers wore masks, the number of in-person customers was reduced, and customer personal information was tracked.
  • 24 April: Brazil confirmed more than fifty thousand cases.
  • 30 April: Brazil overtook China's official number of confirmed cases, surpassing 87,000

    May

  • 3 May: Brazil confirmed more than a hundred thousand cases; the number of cases had doubled in less than 10 days.
  • 7 May: Several cities in the northern states of Amazonas and Pará begun issuing lockdown measures in order to curb the spread of the virus. Other cities in other states consider doing the same.
  • 9 May: Brazil confirmed more than ten thousand deaths; the number of deaths had doubled in less than two weeks.
  • 11 May: Brazilian care centers initiate use of the hug tunnel to allow elderly people to safely be in proximity to loved ones.
  • 14 May: Brazil confirmed more than 200,000 cases; the number of cases had doubled in 11 days.
  • 15 May: Brazil's minister of Health, Nelson Teich, resigned less than a month after being nominated. He cited reasons for this action similar to those of his predecessor: his clashes with the president over the use of hydroxychloroquine, the social distancing guidelines, and being overruled on rules he was supposed to define. General Eduardo Pazuello assumed the role of Interim Minister of Health, until an official replacement could be found.
  • 26 May: Reuters reported that according to four officials, the Ministry of Health's initial 13 March response to the pandemic was halted and scaled back by President Bolsonaro less than a day later, with power transferred on 16 March from the ministry to the office of General Walter Souza Braga Netto, the Cabinet Chief of Staff.
  • 31 May: Brazil confirmed more than five hundred thousand cases; the number of cases had doubled in less than 14 days.

    June

  • 1 June: Brazil confirmed more than 30,000 deaths.
  • 5 June: The Brazilian government shut down its official website with COVID-19 daily reports, and stated it will no longer report the total number of deaths or active cases.
  • 6 June: Carlos Wizard, the new Secretary of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Health, claimed that states are inflating the number of COVID-19 deaths in Brazil as a budget diversion scheme, and called for a recount of the total number of deaths.
  • 7 June: The government decided that it will no longer publish cumulative COVID-19 numbers, claiming that former numbers may have been misleading. The health ministry plans to publish only the numbers of new cases and deaths in the past 24 hours. In response, large media groups in the country established a council to keep recording and publishing data according to the original method, amid claims that the government's initiative could be a maneuver to mislead the population instead.
  • 9 June: A court order forced the Brazilian government to continue publishing cumulative case and death counts.

    July

  • 6 July: President Bolsonaro has a fever and was tested for coronavirus.
  • 7 July: President Bolsonaro tests positive for COVID-19.
  • 25 July: President Bolsonaro tests negative for COVID-19.
  • 30 July: First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro tests positive for COVID-19.