With COVID Deaths Soaring, Brazil’s President Says He’s The Victim

The coronavirus pandemic continues to savage the country of Brazil as more than 45,000 died from COVID in the last month. But President Jair Bolsonaro is casting himself as the victim. From CNN:

In the coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, intensive care units are 95% full. Fifteen other state capitals are similarly verging on collapse, with ICU occupancy over 90% — a deluge of hospitalizations that has accompanied a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in the country.

While Covid-19 cases are beginning to plateau or decline in many countries, Brazil is reporting record daily numbers. Just on Wednesday the country saw its largest daily jump in cases since the start of the pandemic — 90,303 new cases.

“Here it became a war against the President. It seems that people only die of Covid,” Bolsonaro, who wasn’t wearing a mask, told supporters outside the presidential palace on Thursday.

“The hospitals are 90% occupied. But we need to find out how many are from Covid and how many are from other illnesses,” he said.

Perhaps Bolsonaro should consult Brazil’s health ministry which reported 2,724 more people had died from the virus that very day bringing the total to 287,499. The South American nation is the second worst-affected nation in the world in regard to total number of cases and deaths due to coronavirus, after the U.S.