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| - Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro announced Monday that he will appoint cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga as health minister, the fourth to hold the post during the pandemic, as the country's health system staggers amid surging Covid-19 cases. "It was decided now in the afternoon to appoint physician Marcelo Queiroga to the Ministry of Health," Bolsonaro said in a brief meeting with his supporters at the Alvorada presidential palace. The transition process "should take one or two weeks," he added. The appointment will be finalized Tuesday. Bolsonaro made the announcement after meeting with Queiroga, and hours after current health minister Eduardo Pazuello told a press-conference that the president was seeking to replace him to "reorganize" the ministry. "The conversation (with Queiroga) was excellent," Bolsonaro said. "He has everything in my opinion to do a good job, giving continuity in everything Pazuello did until today." The appointment of Queiroga, the president of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology (SBC), comes as Bolsonaro's government faces harsh criticism for its chaotic handling of the coronavirus pandemic and denials of the severity of the crisis. "From now on we are going to a more aggressive phase regarding the fight against the virus," far-right Bolsonaro said. Before leaving office, Pazuello announced the government had purchased 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which should be delivered by September. He also said that some 38 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine should arrive in the second half of 2021. The completion of the purchase is vital to speed up Brazil's vaccination campaign, as the country has seen a spike in new Covid-19 cases and deaths since February. The recent wave has brought hospitals in more than half of the South American nation's 27 states to the brink of collapse and caused state governors to order more restrictions to slow the spread of the virus. val/js/lda/to/st
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