Brazil’s divided leadership worsens COVID-19 situation
CGTN
While much of the media's criticism has focused on the poor response of countries like the U.S. and Britain to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the case of Brazil is starting to gain more attention. On May 20 the country surpassed Spain, and two days later, it passed Russia to become the country with the second-largest number of novel coronavirus cases in the world.
Brazil's sharp rise up in the global rankings may go even higher since the current figures may well be understated: Brazil is only testing around 3,000 people per million, whereas those with a similar number of cases are testing tens of thousands per million.
Brazil's situation has been made considerably worse by a divided leadership. On the one hand, state governments and municipalities are trying to contain the spread of the virus by imposing preventative measures, including advising people to stay at home, physical distance requirements and increasing medical capacity and material. Congress, meanwhile, has expanded social security payments to include informal workers.
