Virus-hit Brazil health minister leaves hospital

Brazil’s health minister Eduardo Pazuello, who tested positive for the coronavirus last month, left hospital on Sunday two days after being admitted for dehydration.

Pazuello was admitted to hospital on Friday night for follow-up treatment for Covid-19 and dehydration, the DF Star private hospital in Brasilia announced on Saturday.

“Pazuello is well and has recovered from his dehydration. The minister will be supervised by his armed forces medical team until he fully recovers from Covid-19,” the health ministry said in a statement following his release.

Pazuello announced he had tested positive for the virus on October 21, after complaining of headaches and fever, and has been under quarantine in Brasilia since.

More than half of President Jair Bolsonaro’s cabinet have tested positive for the virus in recent months.

Bolsonaro, who has criticized social distancing measures because of their impact on the economy, caught Covid-19 himself at the beginning of July, as did the first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro.

Pazuello, an army general, is Brazil’s third health minister of the pandemic.

His predecessors left after clashing with Bolsonaro, including over the president’s insistence on using the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat the new coronavirus despite studies showing it is ineffective.

Brazil has the second highest number of deaths worldwide from the coronavirus, with nearly 160,000, after the United States.

France 24