Health Minister Nelson Teich quits after less than a month in office

Health Minister Nelson Teich has just resigned, after less than a month in office, due to divergences with the Jair Bolsonaro administration. 

The outgoing minister reportedly disagreed with President Bolsonaro regarding the guidelines to open up the economy and also regarding the use of antimalarial drug chloroquine. As we reported earlier in this Live Blog, Mr. Teich had warned about the collateral effects of the medicine, and there is no evidence the medicine helps coronavirus patients.

Despite this, Mr. Bolsonaro has continued to publicly call for the use of chloroquine to treat coronavirus patients and demanded his ministers fall in line and follow suit. 

Markets react to Health Minister resignation

Ibovespa, Brazil’s benchmark stocks index, plunged by 1.8 percent, to 77,500 points, after the news broke that Health Minister Nelson Teich resigned a few days before completing his first month in office. 

Following the news, the Brazilian Real’s upward trend versus the U.S. Dollar has reversed. At the time of publication, the local currency was 0.5 percent down. In the local market, USD 1 was quoted at BRL 5.84.

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