Chaos behind Copa America in Brazil

However, despite intense controversy and concerns about Covid-19, in the context of a pandemic that is claiming the lives of nearly 2,000 Brazilians every day, the South American national team championship (Copa America),

`Copa America will be held in Brazil,` Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said earlier this month, after the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) stripped Argentina and Colombia of their hosting rights because of the Covid-19 outbreak.

`Regarding the pandemic, from the beginning I said: I’m sorry for the deaths, but we still have to live,` he said.

National Stadium in the Brazilian capital Brasilia, where the opening match of Copa America 2021 took place on June 13.

In a country with politics that has long been associated with football like Brazil, analysts see that Bolsonaro is risking his life to bet on the decision to organize the Copa America.

Several witnesses provided deeply damaging testimony, including detailing the Brazilian government’s failure to procure a Covid-19 vaccine, along with unrealistic promises about the effectiveness of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which

According to polling firm Datafolha, Bolsonaro’s approval rating has dropped to 24%, the lowest level during his term.

Many believe that Bolsonaro sees an opportunity to reverse public opinion, as well as replace the daily news of congressional investigation testimony, by bringing to Brazil something that most people pay closer attention to.

`He needs to create a smokescreen to cover up the flow of information being published that confirms the government’s actions during the pandemic. This is an attempt to create an image inside and outside Brazil that the country has overcome

In fact, the Covid-19 situation in Brazil is completely opposite to the image that Bolsonaro seems to want to build.

`There is no debate that the pandemic situation in Brazil is generally not under control,` Brazilian research agency Fiocruz concluded in a report last week.

A Covid-19 patient was loaded into an ambulance in Duque de Caxias city, Brazil, on March 24.

In order to protect the decision to host the Copa America, the Brazilian government said that each team’s delegation participating in the tournament consists of only 65 people.

Bolsonaro’s supporters also believe that criticizing the decision to host the Copa America is an overreaction, arguing that the tournament will be similar to other sporting events the country has held amid the pandemic.

However, poll results show that more than 60% of Brazilians oppose the country hosting the Copa America.

A famous sports broadcaster called Bolsonaro’s decision to host the Copa America `a slap in the face of the Brazilian people`.

`We are recording more than 70,000 new infections every day. We are not entering the third wave of the pandemic, but are already in it,` Domingos Alves, director of the University’s Health Intelligence Laboratory, said.

Scientists explain that it is not the tournament itself that is most dangerous, but the crowds that will almost certainly form.

Due to the spread of a more transmissible nCoV variant, Brazil’s health system has collapsed once this year.

Experts warn that Brazil must handle Covid-19 seriously if it does not want to plunge into the abyss again.

`In this critical moment, when hospitals are full and medical supplies are at risk of running out, any upward trend in the number of infections or hospitalizations is extremely scary,` Lobo said.