Brazil: Taxi drivers in Rio get tested for COVID-19

Taxi drivers lined up at Rio de Janeiro's iconic Sambodrome on a rainy Monday morning for COVID-19 testing at the stadium which usually hosts the city's Carnival parades.

With more people leaving their homes and using public transport since an easing of restrictions, Rio's City Hall is making tests available for taxi drivers for 10 days.

Driver Admilson Gomes Pinto, 61, looked relieved after having his finger pinched for a test that could cost more than $150 in Brazil.

He said felt symptoms of the disease caused by the virus, like shortness of breath.

"I had no money to do the test and it's necessary," he said.

While authorities allowed street sellers, shopping malls and some commerce to return to work, in downtown Rio, where most of the shops remained closed, some owners who could not deal with the economic crisis deepened by the pandemic, decided to close their doors forever.

"It's frustrating to close a shop because you have the feeling of failure. Besides that we lost our father, our mentor, our friend, our everything," said Débora Castilho Simão, 47, the owner of a bijou store.

A decline in intensive-care bed occupancy in Brazil's two largest cities has prompted authorities to gradually relax COVID-19 restrictions, although health experts are keeping a watchful eye.

At the same time, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has cast doubt on hospital data and called on his supporters to investigate.

In the city of Rio the occupancy rate was 85% in the public system, according to its secretariat, and 64% in the wider Rio state.