BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello was discharged from the hospital on Sunday after checking in two days earlier suffering from dehydration and with an earlier diagnosis of COVID-19, the ministry said in a statement.
Pazuello tested positive for coronavirus on Oct. 21. Roughly half of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro’s 23-member cabinet has gotten the coronavirus, with the president and his wife coming down with the disease in July.
Bolsonaro has sought to downplay the severity of the disease and opposed strict lockdowns favored by many state governors and local politicians.
Brazil has the world’s second-deadliest outbreak of COVID-19, with 159,884 people killed, second to only the United States, according to a Reuters tally.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu, writing by Jake Spring; Eediting by Steve Orlofsky)