Keypoints:
- Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro has announced that Brazil may soon be free from wearing face masks.
- On Friday, Bolsonaro said that he had requested his health minister to prepare a study in order to ease the rules. He added, “For how long are going to be hostage to masks?”
Recently, Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro announced that Brazil may soon eliminate the mandatory use of face mask by those who are vaccinated or are already infected by the virus, this, drawing the rebuke of medical experts who are considering the measure too early for Brazil which has inoculated only one quarter of its population with the first dose.
On Friday, the president said that he had requested his health minister to prepare a study in order to ease the rules. He added, “For how long are we going to be hostage to masks?”
Marcelo Queiroga said that nothing has been decided yet.
Shortly after Bolsonaro’s statement, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said that, “I received from the president a request to study the use of masks.” The minister has repeatedly defended the use of face masks and has put up one in the video too. He added that the president was “very satisfied” with the arrival of more vaccine doses.
The pandemic in Brazil has already taken away lives of half a million people, it has shown few signs of slowing down. In the past 24 hours, more than 88,000 thousand new cases and 2,504 deaths were reported. Rollout of vaccinations has been slow and troubled. A congressional inquiry in the lag in shot delivery points to the mismanagement by the administration at the time of negotiations for the purchase of shot.
Health experts have warned that while the vaccines protect those who got them from getting extremely sick, they are less effective in avoiding that they become contaminated by the virus and spread it to others.
There has been consistent use of masks and maintaining social distance across the country. Smaller town in Sao Paulo state has already enforced a complete lockdown whereas bigger cities like Rio de Janeiro have gradually led to the ease of restrictions.
