|
 President Jair Bolsonaro criticized Brazil's health regulator Anvisa
for proposing the vaccination passport be required for arriving
travelers to help prevent the spread of new coronavirus variants.
"Anvisa wants to close the country's airspace now. Not again, damn
it," Bolsonaro, a vaccine skeptic, said at a business event in
Brasilia.
Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga, speaking after a Cabinet meeting
later on Tuesday, said Brazil would not discriminate against people
who are not vaccinated by adopting the passport.
He said, however, that Brazil will require unvaccinated travelers
entering the country to quarantine and have a COVID-19 test. He did
not give details on how that would be implemented.
Anvisa last month proposed adopting a "vaccination passport" for
entry into Brazil, but the government has not yet decided on the
matter. Bolsonaro has repeatedly attacked the proposal.
Vaccine skepticism from Bolsonaro, who says he has not gotten a
COVID-19 shot, has done little to dampen Brazilians' eagerness to
get immunized, with more than 85% of adults now fully vaccinated.
[to top of second column] |
 The Supreme Court on Monday
gave 48 hours for the executive branch to
explain why the vaccination passport had not yet
been adopted. Last week, at the
suggestion of Anvisa, the government suspended flights from six
countries in southern Africa, where the new, fast-spreading Omicron
variant of the coronavirus was identified.
Bolsonaro repeated his criticism of COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday,
saying vaccinated people can still be infected, spread the
coronavirus and die from COVID-19. He also minimized the new
variant, saying there are "thousands of viruses" and the pandemic
was ending.
While much is still not known about Omicron, unvaccinated people
account for the vast majority of severe COVID-19 cases and deaths.
(Reporting by Lisandra ParaguassuWriting by Anthony Boadle; Editing
by Bill Berkrot and Sandra Maler)
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