Brazil cuts funding for pandemic efforts

The Brazilian Health Ministry blocked BRL 666 million (USD 130 million) in funding from the budget earmarked by Congress to support state administrations in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. 

Twenty states and 25 municipalities would benefit from these parliamentary grants but have yet to receive funding. The pandemic continues to kill over 1,000 people every day in Brazil. 

The northern state of Amazonas — which has faced not one, but two health collapses since the beginning of the pandemic — was set to receive around BRL 160 million.

Renatho Melo, director of the National Institute of Public Budget (Inop), told the newspaper “it is nonsensical” that “emergency resources have not yet been paid.”

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• #covid-19
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