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Chaotic Crowds Vying for Aid Risk Spreading Virus in Brazil

Chaotic Crowds Vying for Aid Risk Spreading Virus in Brazil

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil government aid for out-of-work gig employees has people defying quarantine orders to personally collect their money, threatening to worsen the spread of the coronavirus as the pandemic gathers pace.

From Rio de Janeiro to Ceara, Brazilians flocked to banks to get the stipend of 600 reais ($114) per month, with local media showing photos of miles-long lines of people often without masks and huddled together. Others had to go in person to IRS offices to fix issues with their national IDs, which are needed to request the aid.

Chaotic Crowds Vying for Aid Risk Spreading Virus in Brazil

Some 40 million people are eligible for the handouts, which can also be claimed online. But in a nation where about 25% of the population lives in poverty, Internet hookups are sometimes out of reach. Website G1 said people waited for more than 12 hours in Rio, the second-hardest hit state by the pandemic.

Pedro Guimaraes, the chief executive officer of Caixa Economica Federal, pleaded with people to stop coming to the bank’s branches. The state-run lender is the government’s main channel for distributing aid.

“I ask that people try to use the app, the hotline, as much as possible,” he said at a press conference on Thursday. “Only go to a branch as a last resort.”

A survey released in November by the country’s Institute of Geography and Statistics showed that about 80% of Brazilians live in homes with Internet -- a number that drops to 66% in the population living below the poverty line.

Health officials say Brazil is probably still weeks away from the peak in Covid-19 cases, which have doubled in the past week to about 30,500. Almost 2,000 deaths have been confirmed.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.