Editor's note: This is the 80th article in the COVID-19 Global Roundup series. Here is the previous one.
Brazil has reported more than one million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 48,954 deaths as of Saturday, marking a grim milestone for the South American country.
It has also been reported that many experts believe the COVID-19 infections in Brazil will soon surpass the United States and it will become the worst hit country by the coronavirus pandemic, according to CNN.
While President Jair Bolsonaro is balancing the challenges of containing the virus while keeping the nation's economy flowing, he is also confronted with a leadership crisis including an inquiry into abuse of power, anti-police brutality protests, and growing calls for his impeachment.
Tumbling economy
The coronavirus has caused an economic downfall for the whole world including Brazil, and the government has introduced a series policies to salvage another wave of the ongoing economic crisis.
However, Brazil's economy was already fragile before the pandemic. In 2019, it grew 1.1 percent, its weakest growth in three years, and the coronavirus pandemic this year has compounded Brazil's prolonged economic slump.
"Many state and municipal governments were unable to even pay the payroll," Marcos de Barros Lisboa, an economist and head of the Insper business school in São Paulo told The Financial Times. "Now, the fiscal deficit and public debt will not stop increasing this year."
Brazil's gross debt will rise this year to around 95 percent of gross domestic product as the government ramps up spending to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, said Treasury Secretary Mansueto Almeida during an online debate.
Questionable leadership
Even though his country has the world's second most confirmed COVID-19 cases, Bolsonaro continues to downplay the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, calling it a "little flu" while remaining at odds with state governments and health officials trying to contain the spread of the disease.
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The Brazilian government on Friday published new guidelines for meatpackers after a spike of COVID-19 cases at food plants, including keeping workers at least one meter apart, but labor prosecutors criticized the steps as being inadequate.
As of Friday, almost 24 percent of all COVID-19 cases in Brazil's southern Rio Grande do Sul state were workers in the local meat industry, according to labor prosecutors and state health data.
But a prosecutors' representative said the guidelines ignored key recommendations made by the office that specified minimum distancing of 1.5 meters between workers in common areas of the plant, as well as mass testing.
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro pictured in Brasilia, Brazil, May 26, 2020. /AP
Thousands of protesters in Brazil have marched in Sao Paulo to denounce the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Bolsonaro's presidency crisis
Meanwhile, smaller counter-rallies have taken place almost weekly by supporters of Bolsonaro, in order to challenge coronavirus lockdowns and call for military intervention to close Congress and the Supreme Court, which they see as obstacles to his agenda.
On Tuesday, Brazilian police raided the homes and offices of Bolsonaro's allies with 21 search warrants. This followed the arrests on Monday of pro-Bolsonaro activists behind the far-right group Brazil's 300 which held a torch-bearing march outside the Supreme Court last month.
Brazil's top prosecutors' office said in a statement: "The objective of the arrests is to hear the investigated and gather information on how the criminal scheme works."
Brazil's Education Minister Abraham Weintraub attends a session at the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia, Brazil, May 15, 2019. /Reuters
President Bolsonaro has ramped up tensions with the Brazil's top court in recent months, participating in demonstrations calling for it to be disbanded after it authorized an investigation of his alleged interference in law enforcement.
His firebrand Education Minister Abraham Weintraub resigned on Thursday. He has been one of the loudest voices in the government, and believes that Supreme Court judges should be locked up.
The court included Weintraub in its investigation of an alleged libel and disinformation network run by Bolsonaro's supporters after that recording became public in May.
Speaking on Thursday after justices voted 10-1 in favor of moving ahead with the "fake news" probe, Chief Justice Dias Toffoli warned that the gradual destabilization of institutions can lead to authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
"We cannot trivialize attacks and threats to the Supreme Court, guardian of the constitution," he said.
Weintraub's departure came the same day Brazilian police arrested a former aide to Bolsonaro's eldest son in a graft investigation, threatening to ratchet up his battle with the judiciary.
Fabricio Queiroz, former assistant to Flavio Bolsonaro, who is a senator, had disappeared from the public eye for over a year, and was arrested by Brazilian police on corruption charges on Thursday.
The arrest has cast shadow over Bolsonaro's presidency, raising awkward questions about his and his son's political past in the rough-and-tumble world of Rio politics.