Trump administration likely to announce travel restrictions to Brazil because of coronavirus spike

(CNN)National security adviser Robert O’Brien said Sunday that the Trump administration is likely to announce new restrictions on travel to Brazil.

O’Brien, during an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” said the administration is likely to make a decision about restricting travel to Brazil on Sunday, and said White House officials “hope that will be temporary.” He said the White House would “take a look at the other countries on a country by country basis” in that region.

Asked about reporting that the European travel restrictions from mid-March came to late to stop the virus from spreading throughout the US, O’Brien highlighted President Donald Trump’s decision to restrict some travel to China but suggested US officials were unaware that people traveling through Europe from China could bring Covid-19 to America in the weeks before the European travel restrictions were implemented.

“We didn’t know at the time but we later learned that the Chinese continued to allow people to travel from Wuhan to Europe,” he said.

Coronavirus has yet to peak in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest and worst-infected big city, but the health care system is already beginning to break down. As the crisis deepens and the number of deaths continue to rise, President Jair Bolsonaro is urging businesses to reopen. He opposes many governors who are stressing social distancing measures to slow the spread.

Far from hospitals, Brazil’s indigenous people are dying at an alarming rate. The death toll is double that of the rest of Brazil’s population, according to the advocacy group Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil.

APIB has recorded more than 980 officially confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 125 deaths, which suggests a mortality rate of 12.6% — compared to the national rate of 6.4%.

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