Speaking at a news conference with the foreign press corps, Ricardo Barros added his voice to the chorus of Olympic and Brazilian officials pledging that the August 5-21 games will be safe.
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The Brazilian public aren’t the only ones calling for the Games to be postponed however, as more than 100 leading scientists claimed new findings about Zika made it “unethical” for the Games to go ahead in an open letter to The World Health Organization (WHO) – a letter that the WHO rejected just this week.
The finances in Rio de Janeiro have deteriorated so much that the state missed debt payments to a French development bank and the Inter-American Development Bank last month, in what Moody’s Investor Services called a “credit negative for all of Brazil’s states”.
Since October a year ago, at least 1200 newborn babies have been confirmed with microcephaly, or abnormally small heads, resulting in brain damage – a condition believed to be caused in-utero by Zika, although there’s little scientific evidence proving the link.
The WHO declared the virus a public health emergency of worldwide concern in February.
Last month, 150 health experts issued an open letter to the United Nations health agency calling for the games to be delayed or relocated “in the name of public health”.
“No scientific grounds exist for changing the venue for holding the Olympics”, Barros told reporters.
Brazilian officials insist that the Olympics will be safe, because they take place in the southern hemisphere winter when mosquito numbers plummet.
The spread of Zika, a virus transmitted by mosquitos, has prompted flurries of questions about holding the games in Rio.
They continued to say that their greater concern is global health.
The loan would be backed by the state’s participation in local companies and could be extended to the states of Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul, which are struggling to pay employees and pensioners as a crippling recession slashes tax revenues.
“The federal government sent additional funds to the state and will do it again if more resources are needed to maintain the health structure in Rio de Janeiro”, Barros pledged.
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He spoke Friday at the second news conference this week aimed at soothing concerns about Zika. President Dilma Rousseff is facing an impeachment trial after being accused of diverting money from state-run banks to mask budget shortfalls.
