US poised to ban travel from Brazil: White House

WASHINGTON: The United States is poised to announce a ban on travel on Sunday from coronavirus-hit Brazil, a top aide to US President Donald Trump said.

“I think that we’ll have a new travel decision today with respect to Brazil and just like we did with the UK and Europe and China, and we hope that’ll be temporary,” Robert O’brien, the US national security advisor, said on CBS’S “Face the Nation.”

“But because of the situation of Brazil, we’re going to take every step necessary protecting American people,” he said.

The United States had previously cut off travel from China, Europe and Britain as the virus surged in those countries.

Brazil has emerged as the latest COVID-19 flashpoint, second only to the United States in the number of cases and with a death toll that has surpassed 22,000.

Brazil registered 965 new coronavirus deaths on Saturday, taking the total number of fatalities to 22,013, the Health Ministry said.

The country now has 347,398 confirmed cases, according to the ministry, up 16,508 from Friday, when it surpassed Russia to become the world’s virus hot spot behind the United States.

The actual number of cases and deaths is believed to be higher than the official figures disclosed by the government, as the testing capacity of Latin America’s largest country still lags.

Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has been fiercely criticized for his handling of the outbreak, which has led to the exit of two health ministers amid his insistence in opposing social distancing measures while advocating the use of unproven drugs for treatment.

The former army captain has seen his opinion poll ratings drop as an unfolding political crisis adds to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

On April 22, Brazil was fast becoming a new coronavirus flashpoint, but Bolsonaro and his cabinet barely mentioned the pandemic in a video-taped meeting that has triggered outrage and fuelled a potentially explosive investigation.