Two tweets from the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, in which he questioned quarantine measures, were removed by Twitter on Sunday on grounds of violating the social network's rules related to public health information from official sources. Bolsonaro earlier visited public markets, encouraging people to keep shopping and living normally, despite the virus outbreak.
In one deleted video, Bolsonaro reportedly tells a man on a street, "What I have been hearing from people is that they want to work".
On Saturday, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta highlighted the importance of isolation as a measure to slow the spread coronavirus, which has already infected over 4,000 people in Brazil and taken 136 lives, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Bolsonaro earlier characterized the pandemic as 'a media trick', describing it as a flu and claiming that isolation was only necessary for the elderly, while advocating the reopening of shops and schools.