As Brazil struggles with surging Covid-19 cases, President Jair Bolsonaro's government can't figure out who the health minister is: the one sacked last week or the still-unofficial replacement, AFP reports.

Bolsonaro announced last Monday he was firing health minister and army general Eduardo Pazuello and replacing him with cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga. But a week later, neither the widely criticised outgoing minister's departure nor the incomer's appointment has been made official in the government gazette.

“We're in the middle of a pandemic [...] and we have two health ministers. Which in reality means we don't have any,” said Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, one of Bolsonaro's fiercest critics.