Jair Bolsonaro at the UN: the President returned to Brazil and his Minister of Health remained in New York after testing positive for covid-19 | Anvisa recommended a 14-day quarantine for the president and his accompanying delegation to the UN

The President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, returned to the country this Wednesday after his speech of denial before the UN while the Minister of Health Marcelo Queiroga, positive for the coronavirus After attending various General Assembly events, he remained in quarantine in New York. Around the same time that Bolsonaro landed in Brasilia, the Brazilian National Agency for Health Surveillance (Anvisa) recommended 14 days isolation for the president and entourage who accompanied him to the United Nations Assembly, for having been in contact with Queiroga.

“Disembarkation in Brazil without exposing environments and people, isolation for 14 days after the last contact with the confirmed case and respect for isolation avoiding internal transfers to Brazil, ”said Anvisa. The recommendation of the health agency It includes the president and six of his 23 ministers, who accompanied him to New York and including the head of foreign relations, Carlos França; Judge, Anderson Torres; Environment, Joaquim Leite; and Tourism, Gilson Machado. The request extends to the first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro, and the deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the president.

Unlike Bolsonaro and his entourage, Queiroga, who is vaccinated against the coronavirus, remained in New York where he will serve a 14-day quarantine. The He has participated in various official activities, during a Bolsonaro meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and meetings with other personalities such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet. He also traveled around the UN compound and the streets of New York, where had a scandalous episode by responding with obscene gestures to anti-Bolsonist demonstrators.

The controversial Minister of Health not only had to stay in the United States, but on Tuesday suffered a setback in Brazil when Judge Ricardo Lewandowski determined that states and municipalities can decide whether to apply vaccines to adolescentsAfter the minister recommended that all districts suspend the youth campaign. The ruling party, which defends anti-vaccine positions in some discussions, has called for the suspension after the death of a young man, although it has not yet been verified whether the death was linked to his vaccination.

Criticism of the opposition and silence in the government

“Papelon”, “shame” and “irresponsibility” were some of the words addressed to Bolsonaro in a senatorial commission investigating the government’s handling of covid-19. The parliamentary group was due to complete its work at the end of the month but decided to extend it, as it still has an interrogation of Queiroga in progress and will await his return to Brazil.

In government, on the other hand, they have opted for secrecy. Bolsonaro, always verbose on social networks, ignored the case, as did the members of his delegation. Only one comment from the vice-president was known, Hamilton Mourao, who denied that there had been an “oversight” and He said he thought Queiroga had already left Brazil with what he described as a “little bug”.

Bolsonaro had scheduled a meeting on Wednesday with Pedro César Sousa, deputy head of legal affairs of the general secretariat of the presidency. After announcing Anvisa’s recommendation, Planalto updated the official agenda and clarified that the meeting will be held by video conference. In addition, the environment of the president canceled a trip scheduled for Friday inside Paraná.

An Assembly marked by the coronavirus

The issue of the coronavirus haunted the entire visit of Bolsonaro and his delegation to the UN, to the point that President defended controversial government-sponsored drug cocktail to fight pandemic and that includes drugs not scientifically proven against the virus, such as chloroquine.

“We support vaccination but not the health passport”said the far-right leader, who has not yet been vaccinated against the coronavirus and assures that he does not intend to do so until the “last Brazilian” does. Bolsonaro’s resistance to be vaccinated has sparked some controversy in New York, whose mayor, Bill de Blasio, has harshly criticized the Brazilian president’s position.

As he is not vaccinated, Bolsonaro was unable to enter closed places in New York and had to eat a pizza standing on a sidewalk, then a Brazilian restaurant, Fogo de Chao, served him picaña at a makeshift table inside a children’s playpen. At the first of these meals, the Minister of Health was seen eating a slice of $ 2 pizza alongside the President and other members of the cabinet.

Second trip with contagion

March 2020, Bolsonaro had traveled to Miami to meet with then-President Donald Trump, and upon his return it was learned that his press officer at the time, Fabio Wajngarten, member of your entourage, had tested positive for covid-19. As now at the UN, Bolsonaro already attributed the health crisis to a “fiction” generated by the world press and affirmed that there were “influenza which killed many more”.

At that time, Brazil had around 80 cases of covid-19, with no deaths, and had around a thousand suspected patients. After Wajngarten’s positive, other infections were detected between the delegations of the United States and Brazil, which are currently the countries most affected by the pandemic along with India. In Brazil, 18 months after this visit, deaths already exceed 591,000 and infections are more than 21.1 million.