Bolsonaro Calls for Economic Reopening in Brazil, Calls Mayors and Governors 'Tyrants' for Imposing Lockdown

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro dubbed state governors and mayors as 'tyrants,' after officials in Brazil imposed lockdowns as a safety measure in containing the COVID-19 outbreak.

While addressing supporters during his birthday celebrations in Brasilia, the Brazilian President shared that his administration had done all they could. Bolsonaro also emphasized that it is already time for economic reopening.

However, according to BBC, Brazil's leading health institute Fiocruz sent a warning last week regarding a historic collapse in the health service of the country. The health institute pointed out that those intensive care units in hospitals were starting to run out of capacity.

On Sunday, the 66-year-old Brazilian President consistently opposed the imposed quarantine measures by state governors and mayors. The President argued that the collateral damage to the economy would be worse than the effects of the coronavirus itself.

Also, earlier this month, Bolsonaro told Brazilians to stop whining regarding the pandemic. The handling of the outbreak by the Brazilian president has prompted widespread criticism not only in Brazil but also abroad.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, the health ministry of Brazil mentioned on Sunday that it was lifting its requirement for local authorities to reserve half of their vaccine stockpiles for second doses. Based on a report, Eduardo Pazuello, the outgoing Health Minister, stated that their target was to get at least one coronavirus vaccine dose to the maximum number of individuals as fast as possible.

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Moreover, the Brazilian government has been struggling with the rollout of its vaccination program around the vast country. The health ministry of Brazil has been using vaccines from makers Oxford-AstraZeneca and the CoronaVac of China; both of the vaccines require two jabs.

But aside from the mentioned vaccine makers, Brazil has also placed orders for other vaccines. The Brazilian government had already placed their requests for vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson, Sputnik V, and Pfizer-BioNTech, Independent reported.

Based on the data from America's John Hopkins University, Brazil has the second-highest number of coronavirus-related deaths, only behind the United States. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 294,000 individuals have already died, along with close to 12 million confirmed infections.

In addition, not less than 2,200 individuals on average are dying of coronavirus in Brazil on a daily basis. The recent surge in cases has been attributed to the spread of the recently discovered highly contagious variants of the virus.

Brazilian health institute's statement

Based on the analysis of their researchers, it suggests that it will be the biggest collapse of the hospital and health service in the history of Brazil. The data in Fiocruz shows that COVID-19 units in all but two of the 27 states of Brazil were at or above 80% capacity.

Fiocruz continuously warned the government regarding the possibility of a historic collapse in the health service of the country. But the Brazilian President remained in denial regarding the possible collapse. The health institute also stated that in the Rio Grande do Sul, there were no intensive care beds available at all, Republic World reported.

WATCH: Bolsonaro asks court to reverse Brazil's COVID-19 restrictions - from Al Jazeera

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