PROTESTS VS. CLOSURE OF BUSINESS DUE TO COVID ERUPT IN BRAZIL

Protests broke out in Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, against the closure of shops selling non-essential goods, as infection numbers increase in Brazil.

Dozens of people took to the streets to demonstrate, according to news portal G1, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

"Shop owners spend the whole year preparing for December, and now you're closing them," one demonstrator was quoted as saying. "You have enough to eat but many people don't."

The state government imposed the regulation which came into force on Saturday and will initially apply for 15 days.

The measure is a response to rising case numbers and as hospitals fill up.

The Delphina Aziz hospital, said to be one of the best at treating COVID-19 patients in Manaus, is full, G1 reported.

Manaus was one of the first cities in Brazil to run out of capacity at the outset of the pandemic, with its health care and burial systems reaching their limits.

Some 200,000 people have caught the virus in Amazonas, which has a population of 4 million. So far, more than 5,000 patients have died of COVID-19.

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