Brazil announces new health minister as COVID-19 increases

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has named a new health minister as the country continues to struggle with a resurgence of COVID-19 infections and deaths.

Cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga is set to replace General Eduardo Pazuello and become Brazil's fourth health minister since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pazuello confirmed earlier Monday that Bolsonaro was 'thinking of a replacement in the ministry and evaluating names.'

"It is true that the president is thinking of a replacement," he told a news conference, promising to ensure "continuity" and "a proper transition" should he be replaced.

Brazil's third health minister, Pazuello, was criticized during the pandemic for his lack of public health expertise and support for an earlier push by Bolsonaro, a COVID-19 skeptic who downplayed the threat. use unproven drugs to fight the virus.

Bolsonaro told reporters that Queiroga would follow Pazuello's agenda at the ministry, while efforts to accelerate Brazilian vaccination amid an effect of the coronavirus vaccine plagued by delays and inefficiencies.

The far-right president said the transition would take one or two weeks to complete.

Pazuello's two predecessors resigned last year, in part because they would not endorse the treatment of COVID-19 patients with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine.

Brazil has so far reported more than 11.4 million cases of COVID-19, second only to the United States alone, while more than 278,000 people have died in the South American country.

The health ministry said on Monday 36,369 cases of COVID-19, and an additional 1,015 coronavirus deaths had been reported in the previous 24 hours.

In February, Brazil's prosecutor general opened a preliminary investigation into Pazuello and Bolsonaro for possible negligence after the health care network in the Amazon city of Manaus was stretched to its limits amid a surge in infections.

Relatives of COVID-19 patients in Manaus were forced to fill oxygen tanks themselves due to a widespread shortage, and in some cases, families treated their loved ones at home because the hospitals were full.

The lack of oxygen led Brazil to transport the supply to the Amazon, where a more transmissible variant of COVID-19 was also discovered.