Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday that the country is "practically winning" the battle against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) due to the reduction of average daily deaths caused by the virus over the last week.
"We are practically winning (the battle against) the pandemic. The government has done everything possible to minimize its negative effects, either through emergency aid, which has reached 65 million people, or with help for micro and small companies, through credit," the president said at an event in the northeastern state of Bahia.
"It is already beginning to appear, especially in the media outside the country, that Brazil was one of the countries that suffered the least from the pandemic due to the measures taken by the federal government," he said.
Bolsonaro made these statements at a time when, according to the latest figures, Brazil is close to 130,000 deaths from the pandemic and currently has more than 4.2 million cases, making it the second country in the world in number of deaths and third in number of cases.
However, in recent days, the country has seen a decline in the weekly average death rate and there is a downward trend for deaths and cases in most of the country. Enditem
