Relents over travel rules
areas every day, there’s nothing to worry about,” he said.
Elsewhere, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has unveiled rules expanding the prescription of chloroquine, the predecessor of an anti-malaria drug promoted by his US counterpart Mr Trump, for coronavirus patients despite a lack of clinical proof that it is effective.
Chloroquine was already being used in Brazil for Covid-19 patients in a serious condition in hospital, but under the new regulations can be given to people with lighter symptoms such as abdominal pain, cough or fever, according to the Health Ministry.
“There is still no scientific evidence, but it is being monitored and used in Brazil and worldwide,” Mr Bolsonaro, who has controversially likened the virus to a “little flu” and feuded with to relocate from Auckland in preparation for the Australian football competition restarting next week.
The department declined to explain its change of heart on the sisters’ reunion, saying in a statement it did not comment on individual cases.
New Zealand has largely succeeded in its goal of eliminating the virus. It has reported no new infections over the past four days and most of the people who contracted the virus have recovered.
About 1,500 people have been local governments over their stay-athome measures, said via his official Facebook page.
He added: “We are at war: ‘Worse than being defeated is the shame of not having fought.”’
More than 291,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Brazil, the third most in the world after the United States and Russia.
The announcement came a day after the country’s single-day death toll from the virus hit a new high of more than 1,100. Officials said on Wednesday that 888 more people died in the subsequent 24 hours.
Mr Trump has promoted treating Covid-19 with hydroxychloroquine, a variant considered less toxic and more effective than chloroquine, and he announced on Monday he was taking the drug as a precaution.
No large, rigorous studies have reported as having the virus including 21 who died.
Australia has had similar success in slowing the virus spread although New South Wales remains the worstaffected state. Australia expects New Zealand will become the first international destination with which regular passenger travel will resume because of the low risk of infection.
Australia has recorded 7,079 virus cases and 100 deaths. Australia’s population is five times larger than New Zealand’s. found either drug safe or effective for preventing or treating the virus.
Brazil’s new guidelines were approved by interim Health Minister, General Eduardo Pazuello, who had no health experience prior to becoming the ministry’s No. 2 official in April.
Gen Pazuello’s appointment to the top job came after then-Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta was fired last month for publicly supporting state governors who shut down nonessential businesses and adopted other measures against the virus, and after Mr Mandetta’s replacement, Nelson Teich, resigned last week.
Mr Teich did not explain why he left, but he had publicly disagreed with Mr Bolsonaro over chloroquine.
Speaking on Wednesday to a group of street cleaners in the capital, Brasilia, Mr Bolsonar suggested he had no plan to replace Gen Pazuello: “This one is going to stay for a long time”.
Officials say nearly 19,000 people have died of the coronavirus in Brazil so far, and experts warn that low testing rates mean the true number of cases is likely far higher.
Health systems in various states have gone over capacity, with overwhelmed intensive care units unable to take in new Covid-19 patients, and experts say rising numbers of people are dying at home.
Cemeteries are using backhoes to dig hundreds of graves at a time, and Manaus in the heart of the Amazon rainforest is burying the dead in mass graves.
Several large observational studies, including one in US hospitals for veterans, have not found benefit from hydroxychloroquine for treating Covid-19.