Brazil's new Health Minister changes anti-Covid-19 policy

Marcelo Queiroga, Brazil's fourth health minister, said President Jair Bolsonaro would continue to draft policies to combat the epidemic.

A cardiologist who oversees the Brazilian health department said it was President Jair Bolsonaro who would continue to prescribe anti-epidemic policies that kill about 2,000 people a day. Marcelo Queiroga, who took over from General Eduardo Pazuello, avoided the closure of property as a government tool, telling local media that it should be used in extreme cases and said doctors were free to prescribe unrestricted drugs to fight the virus. In previous interviews before accepting the job, he had said he personally opposed the use of chloroquine in patients with Covid-19, a drug that Bolsonaro repeatedly mentioned.

"It is the policy of President Bolsonaro, not the Minister of Health," he told reporters on Tuesday when he arrived at the Department of Health in Brasilia. "I have been called to continue Pazuello's work."

However, he defended a sufficient vaccination campaign in an interview with CNN Brazil, saying the government needed to intensify negotiations with governors and mayors who are often attacked by Bolsonaro through limited means.

Queiroga is Brazil's fourth health minister since the coronavirus arrived in the country more than a year ago. Luiz Henrique Mandetta and Nelson Teich, both of medical backgrounds, have left after a disagreement with Bolsonaro over a community deviation and illegal treatment in Covid-19. Pazuello has been in office since May. The pressure to install Pazuello, a military expert, has grown a few weeks ago as Brazil succumbed to a new wave of the virus. The country has regularly reported more than 75,000 cases and 2,000 deaths a day, surpassing India - six times as many people - in total infections.