BRAZIL, the hardest-hit Latin American country in the novel coronavirus pandemic, registered a record number of new cases Wednesday, surpassing France’s tally to become the sixth-worst-hit country, as the disease sends the economy toward its worst year since at least 1900.

The government confirmed 11,385 new cases in the past 24 hours before Wednesday, bringing its total count to 188,974 cases, and 749 more deaths, increasing the death toll to 13,149.

The numbers put Brazil’s coronavirus mortality rate at 7 percent.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who opposes stay-at-home measures due to their impact on the country’s economy, defended his government’s support for the “vertical isolation” strategy, which means only vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and the infirm, must practice social distancing.

Bolsonaro told reporters that he favored restarting the economy, while safeguarding those vulnerable segments.

In a decree published Monday in a special edition of the government gazette, Bolsonaro, 65, included gyms and hair salons on a list of “essential” businesses allowed to open.

“Because health is life, today I put gyms, beauty salons and barbers on the list of essential activities,” he told reporters late Monday.

“Whoever is sedentary at home, for example, is increasing their cholesterol levels, their stress issues, and a whole lot of problems. But if they could go to a gym — logically in accordance with Health Ministry regulations — they will have a healthier life,” Bolsonaro said.

“It’s the same with the hair stylist and barber. And having one’s nails painted, and fixing up their hair, etc, is a matter of hygiene.”

More than 1 million people work in these industries, Bolsonaro said.

Bolsonaro’s decree, which also includes industrial activities and construction, may in the end have no practical effect: Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled in April that governors and mayors have the final say in how they counter the spread of the coronavirus.

Resisting pressure from Bolsonaro, the governors of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states have said they will extend the partial quarantine measures in force since March until the end of May.

Even as COVID-19 cases mount in Latin America’s largest nation, Bolsonaro has staked out the most deliberately dismissive position of any major world leader, calling the pandemic a momentary, minor problem and saying strong measures to contain it are unnecessary.

Dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics” for his mastery of social media, his ability to energize supporters and his venomous attacks on opponents, the far-right leader has consistently rejected any suggestion that the virus poses a threat to his citizens, and repeatedly attacked any lawmakers, media figures or even his own ministers that disagree.

He believes that quarantine measures are ruinous for the economy and has dismissed the novel coronavirus as nothing more than a “weak case of the flu.”

Bolsonaro was swept to power in a wave of anti-establishment sentiment in the 2018 presidential election. A right-wing nationalist, law-and-order advocate, and former army captain who expressed admiration for the military government that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985, the president was already one of the most divisive world leaders before the pandemic, but its arrival in Brazil has highlighted the shortcomings of the populist who has shown little regard for science or public health.

Few world leaders have been as exposed by the coronavirus pandemic as Bolsonaro.

Videos emerged in March of Bolsonaro enjoying a floating BBQ, jet-skiing out to meet others on a boat and flouting social distancing guidance.

The president has also repeatedly mocked lawmakers who have introduced tighter restrictions on public freedoms and economic activity, and when asked about the Brazilian death toll reaching 5,000 last month simply replied: “So what?”

Bolsonaro has also participated in two so-called “anti-lockdown” protests outside Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, where supporters crowded outside the gates and crammed against each other for a chance to see the president.

On March 24, Bolsonaro compared the coronavirus to a “little flu” in an address to the nation.

“Brazilians don’t catch anything ... they already have the antibodies to keep it from spreading,” the president has said.

He added again that Brazilians are likely to be immune to the coronavirus during a March 26 press conference in Brasilia.

“Brazilians should be studied, we don’t catch anything. You see people jumping in sewage, diving in it and nothing happens to them,” Bolsonaro said. During the same press conference, Bolsonaro said he believed many Brazilians had already been infected but that those people already had “the antibodies that would help [coronavirus] not spread.”

Bolsonaro says he has been tested twice for coronavirus and both tests came back negative, according to posts on his personal Twitter and Facebook pages. Congressional leaders and a Federal judge are now asking the president to show evidence that the test came back negative, after he recently implied he may have contracted the virus without knowing it.

Bolsonaro recently reiterated his claims that efforts to flatten the curve of the virus’s spread — via quarantine measures and social distancing — were ineffective.

“From the looks of it, from what we’re going to see now, this effort to flatten the curve was practically useless,” Bolsonaro said during a Facebook live April 30. “Now, the collateral damage from all of that will be unemployment.”

The biggest threat to Brazil’s ability to successfully combat the spread of the coronavirus and tackle the unfolding public health crisis is the country’s president, according to the British medical journal The Lancet.

In an editorial published May 9, the Lancet said his disregard for and flouting of lockdown measures is sowing confusion across Brazil.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is becoming increasingly hamstrung by political crisis following his recent sacking of popular Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta and the resignation of Justice Minister Sergio Moro, The Lancet said.

“Such disarray at the heart of the administration is a deadly distraction in the middle of a public health emergency and is also a stark sign that Brazil’s leadership has lost its moral compass, if it ever had one,” the editorial said.

“The challenge is ultimately political, requiring continuous engagement by Brazilian society as a whole. He needs to drastically change course or must be the next to go,” the editorial said.

Does Bolsonaro, who says his response to the disease matches that of U.S. President Donald Trump, actually believe, as he says, that the virus will be vanquished by a cocktail of drugs and Brazil’s tropical climate? It’s possible, but analysts say a more calculated political gamble may underlie his increasingly defiant position.

Bolsonaro may have concluded that when he faces re-election in two and a half years, the economy will matter more to most Brazilians than the death toll from coronavirus. By labeling the virus threat as overblown and decrying state governors’ quarantines and shutdowns as unnecessary, he could be preparing to blame others for any recession that might happen.

Bolsonaro, a Trump devotee, said he has watched his U.S. counterpart speak about the virus in recent days and found their perspectives rather aligned. Like Trump, he has sought to ease anxiety by often touting the yet-unproven benefits of chloroquine in combating the virus. He eliminated tariffs for the anti-malaria drug last month.

Bolsonaro was a fringe lawmaker during his seven congressional terms and gained prominence with a stream of offensive statements. Popular support coalesced around his call for aggressive policing, plans to impose conservative cultural values and promises to rejuvenate the economy. During his 15 months in office, he has battled the media, sought to purge the nation of so-called “cultural Marxism” and dismissed data showing a surge in Amazon deforestation.

Bolsonaro’s fate will depend largely on the damage wrought by the disease, according to Thiago de Aragao, director of strategy at political risk consultancy Arko Advice.

If deaths are relatively low and the economy crippled, “public opinion could side with him,” de Aragao said. “If the final outcome is 50,000 deaths and trucks carrying coffins, like in Italy, it will be tremendously negative for the president.”

(SD-Agencies)