Brazil’s health minister, Nelson Teich has resigned after less than a month on the job as coronavirus deaths in the country increases.
The health minister’s resignation was confirmed by the Health Ministry. The oncologist, a former health care consultant, took the job on April 17 under pressure to align the ministry’s actions with the president’s view that the economy must not be destroyed by restrictions to control spread of the virus.
Nelson Teich had reportedly criticised a decree issued by President Jair Bolsonaro for allowing gyms and beauty parlours to reopen despite the increase in coronavirus cases and deaths.
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Bolsonaro also permitted the use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus, which Teich resisted due to a lack of scientific evidence.
According to reports, more than 13,000 people have died of coronavirus in Brazil, though some experts say the figure is significantly higher due to insufficient testing, and analysts say the peak of the crisis has yet to hit Latin America’s largest nation.
Teich’s resignation comes one day after Bolsonaro told business leaders in a video conference he would ease rules for use of an antimalaria drug to treat people infected with the coronavirus.
The health minister has countless times called the use of chloroquine “an uncertainty” in the fight against the virus, and has warned of its side effects.