Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro announced that the plans to organise a barbeque party at his Alvorada Palace for up to 3,000 people was "fake" and slammed journalists for drawing attention to it on his Twitter page. Bolsonaro also condemned the non-profit Free Brazil Movement for trying to sue him over the purported plans to throw a party.
Earlier in the day, however, Brazil's president doubled-down on his vow to hold a major barbeque party regardless of the criticism of the event and despite it violating the country's anti-coronavirus measures, which require people to avoid gathering in groups. The president claimed that he had invited some 1,300 people to the party, despite initially planning to host it for only 30 friends, and suggested that he might actually let in more.
"I have invited 1,300 people, but if there are more - I will let them in. We will make a barbeque for 3,000 people", Bolsonaro said.
Bolsonaro's remarks regarding the barbeque party at Alvorada Palace come hot on the heels of a report by Imperial College London, published in The Lancet, which called the Brazilian president the main threat to the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The doctors argue in the article that the president's disregard for lockdown measures sows confusion among Brazilian citizens and thus threatens to turn the country into a new COVID-19 hotspot.
Brazil recently registered a record-high number of deaths caused by the coronavirus infection - 615 fatalities between 7 and 8 May. This was a steep rise from 296 deaths registered on 6 May, according to the World Health Organisation. Brazil also experienced a significant spike in the number of daily new COVID-19 cases, going from almost 7,000 on 7 May all the way up to 10,503 new cases on 8 May, according to the WHO.