BRAZILIAN regional governments are calling on President Jair Bolsonaro to U-turn urgently on his opposition to public health measures as Wednesday saw a record 2,000 daily Covid-19 deaths.

State governors presented a report to government the same day calling for stricter public health measures to address the overwhelming pressure on the country’s hospitals.

Governors’ forum chair Wellington Dias of the Workers Party said: “We have reached the limit across Brazil. The chance of dying without assistance is real,” pointing to the number of critically ill patients now dying before intensive care beds are available to take them. At least 30 patients have died in Sao Paulo, the country’s richest state, so far this month while awaiting a hospital bed.

Alexandre Zavascki, a doctor in Porto Alegre, described colleagues “stopping to cry” in the corridors because of the “war scenario” in the hospital. 

But despite a national council of state health secretaries calling last week for lockdowns in regions where hospitals are approaching capacity and a national curfew, Mr Bolsonaro retorted: “I won’t decree it. My army will not go to the street to oblige people to stay home.”

When states imposed local restrictions last year, he tried to overrule them but was defeated in the Supreme Court. He has also been attacked by health authorities for endorsing a range of supposed cures and protections from the virus that have not been verified, from malaria pills to drugs and nasal sprays.

Last week he was criticised for telling people to “stop whining” about the virus when asked about deaths at a public event.

Communist MP Alice Portugal said the country was at a “desperate” moment — “Bolsonaro’s denialism kills!” — while her colleague Orlando Silva said: “The responsibility lies with those who neglected the vaccine, sabotaged social isolation, advised against mask-wearing, made fun of the deaths.”

Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took up the health crisis in his first public speech following the overturn of his corruption convictions on Wednesday, saluting regional governors for a “titanic struggle against an incompetent government ... against people who do not respect life.”

He called for a broad alliance beyond the traditional left to address “the vaccine, employment, emergency aid, health.” The call was welcomed by Maranhao’s communist Governor Flavio Dino, who said that Lula had “outlined the main axes of a new national project.”