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BRAZILIAN President Jair Bolsonaro, celebrating his birthday with a party on Sunday, called state governors “tyrants” for seeking to impose lockdowns.
Mr Bolsonaro has been declared “an ally of coronavirus” by the Communist Party of Brazil for taking state governments to court to overturn restrictions on movement imposed in Bahia, Rio Grade do Sul and Brasilia in response to rising infection rates.
Brazil is reporting over 2,000 daily deaths and has the second-highest death toll globally after the United States. Doctors have warned that the health system is close to collapse and patients are dying while waiting for available intensive-care beds.
Communist Party parliamentary leader Renildo Calheiros said Mr Bolsonaro “systematically attacks governors and mayors who dare to take initiatives in the absence of national co-ordination,” and colleague Orlando Silva said the president’s only policy was “to dig more graves.”
The governors’ forum, which brings together the governors of Brazil’s constituent states, called on the central government on March 10 to impose stricter measures to control infections, but Mr Bolsonaro ignored it.