President Maduro expresses solidarity with Brazilian people in the face of high COVID-19 mortality rate

President Nicolás Maduro expressed his solidarity with the Brazilian people in the face of the accelerated rise in COVID-19 mortality rate in the South American country. Since the pandemic broke out, Jair Bolsonaro’s administration has underestimated the virus and has not taken strong actions to contain it, thus creating the situation Brazil is currently in. “Hospitals and funeral homes have collapsed. They are taking the bodies of our fellow Brazilians from Manaos to mass graves. What a pain!” lamented the Venezuelan president. Brazil has registered 3,313 deaths and 49,492 COVID-19 cases so far. “We have saved Venezuela from situations like this. We need to have conscience and be united. I express my solidarity with the people from Manaos, Roraima and the Brazilian Amazon,” he stressed. On April 22, Mayor of Manaos Arthur Virgílio Neto told international press that the city registers 20 to 35 burials per day, but they have tripled to nearly 100 per day. Virgílio Neto said the Delphina Aziz hospital, reference healthcare center for COVID-19 cases, does not have enough beds now to attend to the population; that’s why they are digging more graves. The mayor of Manaos lambasted Jair Bolsonaro for not taking necessary measures against the propagation of the virus, and urged him to really “take on his duties as President of the Republic.”