Brazilians blame Bolsonaro as COVID-19 deaths pass 500,000

Govt faces criticism for passing up early opportunities to buy vaccines; UK allows outdoor weddings for first time; Delta variant behind spike of cases in Portugal; Russian employees rejecting vaccines risk unpaid leave

Thousands took to the streets across Brazil on Saturday to protest against President Jair Bolsonaro’s pandemic response, blasting the leader for not acquiring vaccines fast enough and for questioning the need for mask-wearing.

Brazil surpassed 500,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, according to the health ministry, the world’s highest death toll ater the United States.

The government faces fierce criticism for passing up early opportunities to buy vaccines. Pharmaceutical maker Pfizer said it got no response to offers to sell vaccines to the government between August and November last year.

“We are protesting against the genocidal Bolsonaro government that did not buy vaccines and has done nothing to take care of its people in the last year,” said 36-year-old Aline Rabelo, while protesting on the national mall in Brasilia.

Bolsonaro’s press office did not respond to request for comment. Only 11% of Brazilians are fully vaccinated and 29% have received a first dose, health ministry data showed.

Brazilian media reported that protests had been held in all 26 states as well as the capital Brasilia.

Many demonstrators called the 500,000 dead a form of genocide carried out by the government on the Brazilian people. They chanted, beat drums and held up signs demanding Bolsonaro be removed for office.

“Half a million reasons to oust Bolsonaro,” read one protestor’s sign in downtown Sao Paulo.

While organisers promised the largest demonstrations yet in more than 300 cities, gatherings in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia on Saturday morning did not appear to be larger than the last major protests on May 29.

Protests in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and financial centre, blocked major downtown thoroughfares, where protesters unfurled a banner the size of a city block demanding “Life, Bread, Vaccines and Education.” It was unclear how the crowd compared to May 29 protest there.

A special Senate commitee is probing the Bolsonaro administration’s pandemic response, highlighting delayed efforts to acquire vaccines while prioritising unproven treatments for COVID-19.

Last month, a poll showed Bolsonaro’s popularity has sunk to new lows with only 24% of Brazilians saying his administration is “good” or “great.” The same poll showed Bolsonaro’s let wing rival, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, would win in a run-off vote if the 2022 elections were held today.

BRITAIN: The British government said on Sunday it will permit outdoor non-religious wedding ceremonies in England and Wales for the first time, boosting a sector hard-hit by the pandemic.

Up to now, England and Wales have only allowed Jewish and Quaker weddings outdoors, while others have to marry in a room or a fixed permanent structure. Scotland does allow outdoor weddings.

Justice Minister Robert Buckland told Sky News the reform gave “greater flexibility” for weddings to “have more guests in a safe way.”

Under the new rules, from July 1 people in England and Wales will be able to have nonreligious weddings and civil partnership ceremonies outside or “under a partially covered structure” at approved venues such as hotels, the Ministry of Justice said. PORTUGAL: Portuguese authorities have confirmed suspicions that the new Delta variant of the coronavirus is driving a spike in new cases in the Lisbon region.

Portugal’s National Health Institute said on Sunday that the highly infectious variant that was first found in India has a prevalence of 60% of new cases in the nation’s capital.

RUSSIA: Russian workers who refuse COVID-19 vaccinations in areas where they are compulsory could be forced to take unpaid leave, the labour minister has warned as infections spike and inoculation drives slow.

Anton Kotyakov’s comments come as Moscow and other cities introduce an array of curbs, including for the Euro 2020 football tournament.

“If the health authorities in a region make vaccination mandatory for some categories of workers, an unvaccinated employee could be suspended,” Kotyakov said in comments posted on Sunday to a state-run channel on the Telegram messaging app.