House Speaker: Social isolation can be relaxed in the future

Social isolation has been widely recommended by health authorities across the globe, since the Covid-19 pandemic started to spread. In Brazil, though, the policy could be relaxed in the future, according to House Speaker Rodrigo Maia. “We will evaluate [social isolation measures] on a weekly basis,” he said in an interview with radio station Bandeirantes.

Mr. Maia also defended that reducing wages of highly-paid federal servants to free up money for the public healthcare system. According to the House speaker, the federal government spends around BRL 200 billion on monthly paychecks. “If we give 15 or 20 percent [of the total to hospitals], it would already help. But it isn’t all about the money, it is a symbolic gesture,” suggested.

He also confirmed that the lower house will vote on a bill this week that separates the regular budget from crisis spending. The measure, he said, is necessary to “to not contaminate the future”. In the past days, Mr. Maia mentioned that he expects to announce a budget of BRL 400 billion to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. Today he reaffirmed that there “will be no other way than to use public resources to guarantee the minimum stability in society and to keep jobs.”

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