Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 21 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – The New Development Bank (NDB) will lend Brazil one billion U.S. dollars, to neutralise the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing total loans to Brazil to four billion dollars, the institution said on Monday.

The funds will be given to the Brazilian government’s emergency aid payment programme, designed to help millions of low-income people.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday said he hopes Republican U.S. President Donald Trump will be reelected in November, although he said the commercial relationship between the two countries is promising even if a Democrat wins.

Bolsonaro has often lauded Trump, calling him a political role model and drawing parallels between their conservative agendas.

SAO PAULO (AP) — A thousand deaths a day.

Since late May, three months after Brazil’s first reported case of the coronavirus, it has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.

On Thursday evening, the federal health ministry reported that the country had passed 2 million confirmed cases of virus infections and 76,000 deaths.

Even as cases wane somewhat in the biggest and hardest-hit Brazilian cities, the virus is peaking in new locations across the largest country in Latin America.

BRASILIA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro confirmed Wednesday that he has once again tested positive for the novel coronavirus, roughly a week after he first tested positive for the virus.

"We hope that in the next few days, they will give me a new test and, everything will be fine so that we can return to normal activity," he said in a live broadcast on his Facebook account.

BRASILIA, July 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been in quarantine nearly a week after testing positive for the new coronavirus, said he plans to take another test as he “can’t stand” being in isolation.

“I will wait quite anxiously because I can’t stand this routine of staying at home. It’s horrible,” Bolsonaro said in a telephone interview, from his official residence at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia.

BRASÍLIA, July 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday named an evangelical pastor as his fourth education minister in 18 months.

Milton Ribeiro, 62, replaces Carlos Alberto Decotelli, who resigned on July 1 after admitting to having lied on his CV.

Bolsonaro announced the new appointment on his Facebook account, along with a list of Ribeiro’s achievements, which include a masters in law and being a member of a presidential ethics commission.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — After months of touting an unproven anti-malaria drug as a treatment for the new coronavirus, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is turning himself into a test case live before millions of people as he swallows hydroxychloroquine pills on social media and encourages others to do the same.

Bolsonaro said this week that he tested positive for the virus but already felt better thanks to hydroxychloroquine. Hours later he shared a video of himself gulping down what he said was his third dose.

“I trust hydroxychloroquine,” he said, smiling. “And you?”

Rio de Janeiro, Jul 8 (AP/PTI) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says he is confident that he will swiftly recover from the new coronavirus thanks to treatment with hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that has not been proven effective against COVID-19.

Bolsonaro said he tested positive for the new coronavirus on Tuesday after months of downplaying its severity while deaths mounted rapidly inside the country.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was tested for COVID-19 after having an X-ray of his lungs on Monday. He didn’t say whether he was showing symptoms of the new coronavirus.

Brazil’s presidency said in a statement the result of the test will be known on Tuesday. Earlier Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly downplayed the risks of the disease, told supporters outside the presidential residence in capital Brasilia that he is feeling well.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian health regulator Anvisa on Friday approved clinical trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac, according to an official gazette publication.

The study - first announced on June 11 - is led by Instituto Butantan, a research center funded by the state of Sao Paulo. The agreement with Sinovac includes not only trials but also the transference of technology to produce the potential vaccine locally.