SÃO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - In mid-March, Brazil took what seemed to be a forceful early strike against the coronavirus pandemic.
The Health Ministry mandated that cruises be canceled. It advised local authorities to scrap large-scale events. And it urged travelers arriving from abroad to go into isolation for a week. Although Brazil had yet to report a single death from COVID-19, public health officials appeared to be getting out in front of the virus. They acted on March 13, just two days after the World Health Organization called the disease a pandemic.
