According to Brazil’s Ministry of Health, on 6 May the country had recorded 8,536 deaths from Covid-19. Despite underreporting, the figure already showed that the main victims were poor people from large cities. Coincidentally, on the same day, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported that the richest 1 per cent of the population earned 33 times more than the poorest 50 per cent in 2019.
Also, on the same day, the mayor of Belém, capital of Pará state, announced that the activities of domestic workers would be considered ‘essential’ during the pandemic. That means they could be called back to work at their employers’ homes before any quarantine ended.
