Brazil Prepares Emergency Actions against Coronavirus

Government wants to quarantine Brazilians who return from the epicenter of the disease and will streamline resources to contain it

Brasília and São Paulo

The Jair Bolsonaro government said yesterday that it would declare a state of emergency in health over the coronavirus outbreak. It wants to introduce a sanitary measure, through a bill, to quarantine the approximately 40 Brazilians living in the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China. They have asked to return to the country.

According to the protocol, the government would adopt isolation with a confirmation of a case of the virus, which has not yet occurred in Brazil. The Bolsonaro administration said it chose to anticipate a virus threat

Approximately 40 Brazilians are living in the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China. - Reprodução/Youtube

Anyone returning from Wuhan would be under observation for 18 days, possibly at a military base in Goiás.

The health emergency decree will occur to give the State agility in the acquisition of equipment and the assembly of the quarantine area, according to the Ministry of Health. The procedure does not require bidding processes. The last time the country declared an emergency was in 2015, because of the Zika virus.

Translated by Kiratiana Freelon

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