Brazil’s neighbours and trading partners are taking steps to limit contact with South America’s largest country — and contemplating more draconian ones. The fear is that the progress many nations in the region have made against Covid-19 could be reversed by new waves of infection from Brazil, whose out-of-control pandemic is incubating virulent new strains that are worrying medical experts worldwide.

“It is a very alarming situation and a regional threat,” said Leda Guzzi, an infectious disease expert and member of the Argentina Society of Infectious Diseases.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who contracted Covid-19 last year and wears a mask only sporadically, has repeatedly downplayed the crisis, even as his country has tallied more than 12 million confirmed Covid-19 infections and nearly 300,000 fatalities, trailing only the United States. He has opposed lockdowns and touted unproven treatments such as the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine.

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