Coronavirus: The View From Brasil

The view from Brazil

Daily deaths from the virus in Brazil are now the highest in the world. The president, Jair Bolsonaro, has consistently played down the threat from the virus and is using the prospect of military intervention to maintain his grip on power.

As the epicenter of the virus shifts to South America, we spoke to Ernesto Londoño, who covers the region for The Times, about the situation in Brazil.

Where is Brazil in the fight against the virus?

We’re in a really critical phase. While some parts of the world are starting to loosen up restrictions and see curves go downward, in Brazil, the number of deaths and the number of cases are still on the rise. And the president’s actions on the coronavirus have come under very sharp criticism. Pretty much every night at 8:30, I hear people outside my window banging pots and pans and screaming, “Out Bolsonaro.” It’s become kind of this nightly ritual for people to express their outrage.

What is it like in the hospitals?

The health care system has performed heroically. We haven’t seen the kind of unraveling, for example, that we saw in places like Ecuador, where bodies were literally piling up in the streets. But dozens of nurses have died from the coronavirus, which gives you a sense of the very heavy toll that it’s taken on health care professionals.

You’re based in Rio de Janeiro. How are people there handling the outbreak?

People have been compliant in wearing masks to a degree that I have found surprising; you know, this is a city where people don’t tend to follow the rules. Rio has always managed to balance out its very hedonistic side — it’s a city famous for Carnival — with grim realities like poverty, poor sanitation and terrible police violence. But now, Rio feels almost universally bleak. It’s a city that is suddenly without any joy or revelry.

What does the future for Brazil look like?

The only thing that’s clear to me and experts is that things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Economists are predicting anywhere between a 6 to 10 percent drop in G.D.P. this year. And on the health care side, it’s anybody’s guess how many tens of thousands of people will die and what kind of reckoning that’s going to mean down the line, considering how cavalier the president has been all along.