Brazil served 50 days without an official Health Minister on Saturday, as the coronavirus pandemic that has infected more than 1.5 million of its citizens and killed at least 63,000, continues to plague the country.
The post has been temporarily held by Army General Eduardo Pazzuello, who has no medical experience, since the last Health Minister, Nelson Teich, resigned on May 15.
Teich, who spent less than a month in office, left amid criticism by President Jair Bolsonaro that he was “too timid in the effort to reopen the economy and advocate the use of chloroquine.” Teich did not provide a reason for his resignation.
Teich’s predecessor, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who advocated measures of social distancing and the use of masks, was fired by Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro, who frequently defies the social distancing guidelines recommended by most health experts and has dismissed the virus as “a bit of the flu,” has been widely criticized for minimizing the virus’s severity.
On Friday, Bolsonaro vetoed parts of a law that requires wearing face masks in public during the pandemic. The use of masks in shopping malls, stores, religious temples, educational establishments, and other closed places where people gather will no longer be mandatory, but individual states and municipalities can enforce those measures.
Brazil has the second highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths worldwide after the United States.
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