Foreign

COVID-19: Health Minister resigns after disagreement with President

Published

8 months ago

May 15, 2020

Nelson Teich, Brazil’s Minister of Health, has resigned, Al Jazeera reports.

Teich resigned on Friday after a month in office amid differences with President Jair Bolsonaro over handling of the growing COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

The Minister’s office disclosed on Friday that he had handed in his resignation and would hold a press conference later in the day.

Brazil President Bolsonaro has been pushing in recent days for wider use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus, a move the Minister was not in agreement with.

The Minister and the President also disagreed over the sit-at-home order and also on the pace of kick-starting the economy.

The minister had last week lamented that he was not consulted before the President issued a decree allowing gyms, beauty parlours and hairdressers to open for business.

His resignation came a day after Brazil’s confirmed cases of the virus passed 200,000, with more than 14,000 deaths.

Mr Teich took office on April 17 after Mr Bolsonaro sacked former health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta.