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The Vice President of the Republic, Hamilton Mourão, was diagnosed yesterday with covid-19 and must remain in isolation at his official residence in Brasilia. There is no detailed official information on his symptoms or health status.
With the diagnosis, the number of senior Brazilian officials who already suffered from the disease is further expanded.
In the Executive, President Jair Bolsonaro (without a party) was diagnosed in July. In addition to him and Mourão, at least 13 of the 23 ministers had COVID-19, among them Augusto Heleno (Office of Institutional Security), Eduardo Pazuello (Health) and Onyx Lorenzoni (Citizenship).
None of them developed a severe form of the disease, which this year killed more than 190,000 people and infected nearly 7.5 million in Brazil.
The disease has spread to other powers as well. In the Judiciary, the president of the Federal Supreme Court, Luiz Fux, had the disease in September. The contagion was associated with his inauguration as president of the Court, since ten other authorities had covid-19 after attending the event, such as the ministers Cármen Lúcia (STF) and Maria Cristina Peduzzi (president of the Superior Labor Court).
In the Legislative, the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, who also attended the inauguration of Fux, and the Federal Senate, Davi Alcolumbre, also received a positive diagnosis.
Almost none of those mentioned were hospitalized, except Pazuello, Minister of Health.
Senator and mayors killed by covid-19
So far, a congresswoman has died of the disease: Arolde de Oliveira (PSD-RJ), 83, in October. He was an ally of Bolsonaro and denied the seriousness of the disease. “A great warrior left! My brother Arolde de Oliveira, that’s how I will remember you, smiling, competent and dedicated to the position you held,” wrote colleague Flávio Bolsonaro (Republicans-RJ).
At least five former federal deputies also died from covid-19: Cadoca (MDB-PE), José Mentor (PT-SP), Irani Barbosa (PSD-MG), Gerson Peres (PP-PA) and Caio Narcio (PSDB-SP ).
The latter was 33 years old and was about to become a father for the first time. “It was with great sadness that I received the information about the death of our colleague, the former deputy Caio Narcio. I had the opportunity to be a deputy with him in the last legislature, when we approved many projects in society. It is a great loss for all,” Rodrigo wrote Maia.
According to a survey by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, at least 22 Brazilian mayors died of covid-19, four of them in the same week in December.
Two world leaders assassinated
Throughout 2020, covid-19 also reached senior officials in other countries.
Two world leaders died from the disease: Ambrose Dlamini, Prime Minister of Swaziland (or Essuatini), and Pierre Nkurunziza, President of Burundi, who had attracted attention for the denialist stance towards the disease. He went on to say that God had cleared the coronavirus from the skies of the country.
According to local media, at least six former presidents died from the disease: Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (France), Pranab Mukherjee (India), Jacques Joaquim Yhombi-Opango (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Pierre Buyoya (Burundi), Jerry Rawlings (Ghana) and Flavio Cotti (Switzerland).
Two other leaders ended up hospitalized because of the disease, but later recovered: Donald Trump, president of the United States, and Boris Johnson, British prime minister.
“Words are hard to find to express my debt to the NHS (British SUS) for saving my life,” Johnson said after being discharged. She spent a week in the hospital, part of it in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit).
