Brazil

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved a constitutional amendment for a “war budget” to separate coronavirus-related spending from the government’s main budget and shield the economy as the country surpassed 10,000 confirmed cases.

The war budget still needs the Senate’s approval by three-fifths of the votes in two rounds expected to take place next week.

Late on Friday, the lower house approved the main text of the bill with 423 votes in favor and one opposed in a second round of voting after a first score of 505 in favor and two against.

4 April 2020; AFP: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's disapproval rating has surged as the far-right leader has taken a vocal stance against coronavirus containment measures, two polls out Friday found.

Bolsonaro, who has compared COVID-19 to a "bit of sniffles" and criticized the "hysteria" around it, has found himself increasingly isolated on the issue as the pandemic advances.

Thirty-nine percent of Brazilians disapprove of his handling of the crisis, up six points from two weeks ago, polling firm Datafolha found.

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 1 (NNN-Xinhua) — The number of deaths caused by the novel coronavirus in Brazil has hit 201 with a rise of 42 in 24 hours, the country’s health ministry announced on Tuesday.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased 1,138 on Monday to 5,717.

The figures released on Tuesday mark a record rise in both deaths and new cases, the health ministry said.

The novel coronavirus spread quickly in Brazil: from the first case to the 5,000-case mark, only 35 days passed.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Like every Sunday, Brazilian Pastor Silas Malafaia took the stage of his Pentecostal temple in a middle-class Rio de Janeiro neighborhood. But this week, he wore a T-shirt instead of a blazer and, behind the three cameras broadcasting to his legion of YouTube followers, were thousands of empty seats.

BRASILIA, March 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two tweets by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro in which he questioned quarantine measures aimed at containing the coronavirus were removed, on the grounds that they violated the social network’s rules.

The far-right leader had posted several videos in which he flouted his government’s social distancing guidelines by mixing with supporters on the streets of Brasilia and urging them to keep the economy going.

Two of the posts were removed Sunday and replaced with a notice explaining why they had been taken down.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Even as coronavirus cases mount in Latin America’s largest nation, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has staked out the most deliberately dismissive position of any major world leader, calling the pandemic a momentary, minor problem and saying strong measures to contain it are unnecessary.

Bolsonaro says his response to the disease matches that of President Donald Trump in the U.S., but the Brazilian leader has gone further, labeling the virus as “a little flu” and saying state governors’ aggressive measures to halt the disease were crimes.

RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday cast doubt on Sao Paulo’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak and accused the state governor of manipulating the numbers for political ends, without giving evidence for his claims.

Bolsonaro’s accusations were the latest broadside in an ugly battle with Brazil’s governors, who have chafed at the president’s view that protecting the economy takes priority over social distancing measures to combat the spread of the highly contagious virus.

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 26 (NNN-Xinhua) — Brazilian state governors called on the federal government to adopt minimum income for citizens amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Several states have established quarantine and isolation measures. Many people who have informal jobs are unable to work from home and thus lost all their incomes.

The governors, who held a nationwide meeting on Wednesday, called for a 2005 law establishing minimum income for all citizens to take effect.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 23 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – At least 11 people were killed and another 17 injured, when a bus collided head on with a truck in southeast Brazil’s Minas Gerais state on Sunday.

According to the Federal Highway Police, the accident took place around dawn, along a highway near the town of Pirapora, after the bus veered into the opposite lane, and crashed into the oncoming truck.

The bus was heading from northeast Bahia state to the city of Paracatu, in Minas Gerais. The truck, meanwhile, was heading towards Bahia from Sao Gotardo, in Minas Gerais.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 21 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil increased by 45 percent in one day, reaching 904 including 11 deaths, the Health Ministry announced.

Sao Paulo state becomes the most infected state in Brazil, with 396 confirmed cases, including two deaths. Rio de Janeiro comes in second with 109 cases and nine deaths, followed by the Federal District, where the capital Brasilia is located, with 87 confirmed cases.