Brazil Unemployment Insurance Sees Steady Drop After First Two Weeks Of August

Things seem to be looking up in Brazil, at least as far as the labor market is concerned. While the pandemic brought the country’s economy to its knees, the recent stats revealed by the economy ministry indicated a steep drop in the new insurance claims.

The total claims in Brazil this year, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, stood at 4.74 million. But, new unemployment insurance claims in Brazil plummeted to 216,350 in the first two weeks of August. The stats are indicative of a 23.2 percent drop from the initial past two weeks of the month, and a 21.3% drop from a year ago. Brazil stands on the second spot among the countries to be the hardest hit by the novel coronavirus.

President Jair Bolsonaro amassed nationwide ire for downplaying the severity of the pandemic during its initial stages of the outbreak. Bolsonaro, who was tested positive recently, continued to advocate the benefits of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential cure against the virus, despite the ideology having met with stern resistance from health experts. Brazil logged in 3,505,097 positive cases in the coronavirus outbreak, with a death toll of 112,423.

As per the stats shared by the health ministry on Thursday; the country logged in 45,323 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 1,204 fatalities from the disease caused by the virus in the past 24 hours. The Bolsonaro government’s mismanagement of the pandemic, compounded by the president’s inflammatory indifference toward the rising deaths has put the country’s socio-political scenario in a precarious spot. Bolsonaro has repeatedly flouted the health warnings of his own ministry and was spotted urging supporters to ‘go out and work’ long before it was safe. Bolsonaro thumbed his nose at social distancing norms and the need to wear masks, thus giving mixed signals to Brazilians across the globe.

Health regulators on Tuesday announced the approval of Johnson & Johnson's experimental vaccine for the final stages of the clinical trials. As reported in a news outlet, The US pharmaceutical company's subsidiary Janssen is likely to rope in 7,000 volunteers across seven states in Brazil for the vaccine trials, as suggested by health regulator Anvisa.