‘RUSSIAN ROULETTE’

Jair Bolsonaro Poses for Pictures With Fans, as Mayor Warns São Paulo Health System Is Nearing Collapse

Brazil is officially one of the most badly affected countries, but official numbers are still feared to be massive undercounts.

The mayor of Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus with some 3,000 deaths, has said its health system could collapse. Bruno Covas said the city’s public hospitals had reached 90 percent capacity and could run out of space in two weeks, and said those who flouted lockdown rules were playing “Russian roulette” with people’s lives. On Saturday, Brazil overtook Spain and Italy to become the nation with the fourth largest number of infections. The health ministry reported 7,938 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total above 241,000. Only the U.S., Russia, and the U.K. have higher numbers. The total number of reported deaths is 16,122—the world’s sixth-highest figure. Health experts in Brazil have warned that the real number of confirmed infections in the country may be far higher than the official records, due to a lack of testing. Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who has been strongly criticized for his handling of the country’s crisis, defied global health advice on social distancing on Sunday when he posed for photographs with supporters and children in the capital, Brasília.