As the coronavirus pandemic has worsened in Brazil with the total of cases increasing to 79,685 with 5,513 deaths, President Jair Bolsonaro has blamed the state governors for the situation.

On Wednesday, the Health Ministry warned that the virus was relentlessly advancing in the country, but the President insisted on underestimating the severity of the epidemic, the peak of which is expected to arrive between May and June, according to the reports.

Advertisement

Addressing the media outside the Palacio de la Alvorada, Bolsonaro’s official residence in Brasilia, he said that “the invoice” of the deceased has to be sent to governors and mayors, who have been the main advocates of adopting isolation measures against COVID-19.

“They have to answer,” he said, adding they could not make him shoulder the responsibility.

Bolsonaro, who has invited Brazilians to return to work, also generated controversy on Tuesday by insinuating that he could not do anything in the face of the increase in victims because, according to him, the Constitution does not allow it.

“So what? I’m sorry, but what do you want me to do?” he said, and added he could not “work miracles”.

Since the beginning of the crisis, Governors and Mayors have largely ignored Bolsonaro and followed the recommendations of the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization.

The President’s anger has focused mainly on Sao Paulo governor Joao Doria, and Rio de Janeiro governor Wilson Witzel, who are at the forefront of the regions hardest hit by the coronavirus and have decreed “soft” quarantines in their territories.

On April 18,  Bolsonaro renewed his call to roll back the restrictions on movement and activity enacted to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The country has registered the first death due to coronavirus on March 17 and reached 1,000 deaths after 24 days.

Nearly 2,500 people in Sao Paulo have been hospitalized for coronavirus and almost half of those patients are in serious condition.

Earlier, authorities have predicted the peak of the outbreak in Brazil will come at the end of April or beginning of May.

The right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro had been downplaying the risk of the virus outbreak in his country by asking people to return to normalcy.

Meanwhile, over 2.2 lakh people have died around the world, while around 32 lakh have been Covid-19 infection, as per Johns Hopkins University.