US imposes travel ban on Brazil after surge in infections

The US has barred entry to foreigners who were in Brazil two weeks before travelling to America as the number of coronavirus cases in the two countries continues to climb.

Brazil has recorded more than 365,000 Covid-19 infections, the highest tally in the world after the US.

US President Donald Trump has already introduced travel bans on foreigners flying from China, Europe, the UK, Ireland and Iran.

He has not barred entry to travellers from Russia, which has the world’s third highest caseload with more than 353,000 infections.

Mr Trump’s management of the coronavirus outbreak in the US has come under sharp scrutiny, but on Sunday White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said he took “decisive action to protect our country” by introducing the Brazil travel ban, which will take effect on Thursday.

The US has reported about 1.7 million coronavirus cases so far, with the country’s death toll standing at about 100,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

“Today’s action will help ensure foreign nationals who have been in Brazil do not become a source of additional infections in our country,” Ms McEnany said.

Filipe Martins, who advises Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on international affairs, said the ban meant the US was treating Brazil the same as any other populous country.

“By temporarily banning the entry of Brazilians to the US, the American government is following previously established quantitative parameters that naturally reach a country as populous as ours,” Mr Martins tweeted.

“There isn’t anything specifically against Brazil. Ignore the hysteria from the press.”

Mr Bolsonaro has played down the threat posed by the virus by repeatedly calling it a “little flu” and said closing businesses and issuing stayat-home orders would damage Brazil’s economy.

Last month, he sacked his first health minister, who supported restrictions put in place by Brazil’s governors.

Mr Bolsonaro’s second health minister resigned this month after refusing to back the widespread use of antimalarial medicine chloroquine as a treatment for patients with the virus, which Mr Bolsonaro said he supported.

On Sunday, Mr Trump said he had completed a course of another antimalarial medicine, hydroxychloroquine, as a line of defence against contracting the virus.

Mr Bolsonaro’s approach to the outbreak has mirrored that of Mr Trump, who initially sought to downplay its severity and suggested the few cases recorded in the US at the time would “just disappear”.

After agreeing to encourage Americans to practise social distancing, Mr Trump began to say the “cure can’t be worse than the problem itself”.

He has travelled more and pushed governors to allow businesses to reopen in their states.

The number of cases in Brazil has continued to surge, pushing hospitals in several states to the brink of collapse and causing officials in the Amazon city of Manaus to bury bodies in mass graves.

The pace of deaths has accelerated and, with a peak still approaching, Brazil has only an interim health minister to help guide the country.

Experts also said insufficient testing meant the number of cases in the country is higher than has been reported. Brazil has recorded 22,746 deaths among Covid-19 patients.

On Sunday, the White House said it planned to donate 1,000 ventilators to Brazil.

The ban on travel to the US will not apply to a spouse, parent or child of a US citizen or legal permanent resident and will not affect trade between the US and Brazil.

On Sunday, US national security adviser Robert O’Brien said Washington was concerned about the situation in Brazil, which was “having a rough go of it”.

Brazil has recorded more than 365,000 Covid-19 infections, the second highest tally in the world after the US