Coronavirus chaotic situation in Brazil, schools closed overnight

Difficult battle with him coronavirus Brazil, while the cases exceeded the limit of 4,000 in one day and the country counts the most dead from covid-19 after the USA.

It has caused a great deal of confusion among schools, churches and restaurants, which the authorities do not adequately explain and which are at the mercy of court decisions that overturn them.

Confusion reigns in the vast Latin American country, according to AMPE, and it is characteristic that on Monday morning Marcia Matos, a resident of Rio de Janeiro, was preparing to take her two-year-old child to kindergarten, when a friend of hers informed her that the reopening of schools was suspended.

This decision was made the night before by a judge and overturned the decision announced by the city authorities on Friday for the reopening of the schools.

“It simply came to our notice then. The kindergarten did not inform us until after the time we usually take him to school. “He was very happy with the idea that he would see his friends again,” said Matos.

The court’s decision was overturned by another judge on Tuesday afternoon following an appeal by the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, but new appeals may change the situation again.

“Here in Rio we are in the middle of a political battle between the mayor and the governor and this adds to the confusion,” Matos underlined.

In late March, Mayor Eduardo Paes announced the complete closure of bars and restaurants, but Governor Claudio Castro allowed them to remain open until 23:00.

At the national level, far-right President Zaich Bolsonaro continues to criticize restrictive measures in the name of keeping jobs.

One reason for the lockdown is contrary to the recommendations of the majority of experts, who believe that the recovery of economic activity will not be possible unless the health situation is brought under control, something that Brazil is far from.

“Judicial vacuum”

“Without national coordination, without a health ministry defining the management of the pandemic, there is a huge judicial vacuum,” explains Jose David Urbaez of the Center for Epidemiology in Brasilia.

“There is no clear definition that applies to the whole Brazil on what activities are considered ‘essential’. “Every city, every state defines in its own way what can and should not remain open, based on local political and economic pressures, which is why the situation is so chaotic.”

A year ago, the Supreme Court ruled that each state and municipality should have the right to decide on its own measures to halt the coronavirus pandemic, a virus that Bolsonaro has described as “a flu.”

The Brazilian president often refers to this autonomy of local authorities to justify the chaotic management of the health crisis. But the Supreme Court has clearly stated in its ruling that the federal government is no exception to its responsibilities to “take action at national level”.

Open churches at Easter

On Saturday, a day before Easter Sunday for Catholics, a Supreme Court judge recently appointed by Bolsonaro decided to allow places of worship throughout Brazil to remain open, despite the fact that many local authorities had closed them, after at the request of an evangelical legal association.

A new upheaval erupted on Monday when another Supreme Court justice, Gilmar Mendes, reinstated the closure of places of worship in the state of Sao Paulo.

The situation is expected to be clarified today when the Supreme Court will consider the matter in its plenary session.

“This increase in lawsuits is a direct consequence of the lack of national coordination, with transparent and consistent decisions,” insists Jose David Urbaez.