On March 6, data editor Marcelo Soares wrote an article showing just how much President Jair Bolsonaro has hijacked the news cycle in Brazil—due to his erratic behavior and preposterous statements. But even Mr. Bolsonaro has taken a backseat in recent weeks to a more pressing subject: the Covid-19 outbreak.
According to researchers of the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University, over 181,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus around the world. More than 7,100 of them have died. The outbreak began as a mainly Chinese problem, concentrated in the central province of Hubei. Now, however, the number of Covid-19 cases outside of Mainland China outnumber those within the Asian country—and Europe has become the new epicenter for the outbreak.
The virus reached Brazil (and Latin America, for that matter) on February 26, when a man returning from Italy tested positive. In just two and a half weeks, the number of infected patients in Brazil is close to 300—and the Health Minister told Brazilians to brace themselves for “some 20 rough weeks ahead.”
This space will be used to provide, on a daily basis, public-interest information about the developments of the coronavirus outbreak in Brazil. If you have doubts about the issue, do not hesitate to write to us at [email protected].
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