COVID-19 has turned Brazil into a real hell. With more than 12.3 million infections and 303,000 deaths, it is currently the country most affected by the pandemic and the second nation in the world with the highest number of victims and infections, after U.S.
As a consequence, companies are taking steps to protect their employees.
After exceeding the figure of 300,000 deaths on Wednesday, the Brazilian subsidiary of Renault announced the suspension of activities at its Sao José dos Pinhais plant, at southern state of Paraná from March 29 to April 4, as reported by the Xinhua agency.
In a statement, the automaker explains that this measure “is aimed at contribute to social isolation at this time when different cities adopted more restrictive measures”.
On the other hand, the French company has also stopped its production in other areas of Latin America: Córdoba (Argentina), Envigado (Colombia) and Cormecanica, in Los Andes (Chile).
This paralysis was added on Thursday by the subsidiaries in Brazil of multinationals Nissan and Toyota. As reported by the company, Nissan Brazil decided to grant collective vacations to its employees, and the assembly line in the city of Resende, in the state of Rio de Janeiro (southeast) and which is the main company of the company, will be suspended between March 26 and April 9, resuming activities on April 12.
For its part, Toyota determined the same stoppage in its four factories in the state of Sao Paulo.
Days ago, other companies had already made the decision to implement this measure. The first one was Volkswagen, which on Friday March 20 announced the stoppage, from March 24 to April 4, in the four plants that the company has in the South American giant.
Tuesday 23 was Mercedes Benz who communicated that it was stopping between March 26 and April 6 to “contribute to reducing the circulation of people at this critical time in the country; manage the difficulty of supplying parts and components, and meet the request of municipal authorities so that we anticipate holidays”.
Bolsonaro changes his speech
Since the outbreak of the serious health crisis caused by the coronavirus, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has minimized the impact of the pandemic, refusing to wear a mask or stating that the virus was just a “Gipecita”.
What’s more, he has avoided at all costs imposing a severe national lockdown as to which many countries around the world have resorted. A trend that is still present. Last Wednesday, the new Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, the fourth since the pandemic began, again discarded the measures, according to The country.
“Who wants the confinement? Nobody wants the confinement. We need to impose efficient sanitary measures, even because the population does not adhere to the closure. We need masks and distance,” he said.
Furthermore, despite the recent intention to create a coordinated action between powers with a crisis cabinet, there is still a chaotic management that receives numerous criticisms.
Without going any further, this week, the Ministry of Health even announced a change in the way of registering disease victims, which would reduce daily data.
Last Tuesday, a strong casserole to the cry of “murderer” in various capitals of the country demanded the president truly effective measures to combat the pandemic. For his part, National Congress has also asked concrete actions, when the elections are one year away.
Faced with these pressures, Bolsonaro has changed his speech, showing a more conciliatory tone and promising the creation of a national pandemic monitoring committee, which will be made up of representatives of the Executive, state governments and Congress.
In the same way, he has rectified his way of talking about the vaccines. At first he questioned them and referred to them in a derogatory way, while now he is in their favor and guarantees that the country will have the necessary 500 million in the second semester.