BRASILIA, Brazil (LifeSiteNews) — Travelers who refuse the COVID jabs may soon be allowed to enter Brazil now that the country’s National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) has announced its support for overturning a ban against them.
The health agency surprised commentators on Monday by recommending that the ban be lifted, and unvaccinated travelers be required only to present a negative COVID-19 test result to enter Brazil.
Furthermore, Anvisa said no health declaration or quarantine period should be required of any travelers.
According to Reuters, the advice must now be approved by Brazil’s Health, Justice and Public Security, and Transport ministries to take effect.
This is a reversal of Anvisa’s recommendations only months ago. On December 12, 2021, a Supreme Court justice ruled against President Bolsonaro’s attempt to avoid such vaccine-based discrimination, paving the way for Anvisa to quickly implement a ban on unvaccinated travelers to Brazil.
The news comes after multiple European countries lifted their restrictions on inbound travel, with Ireland, England, Denmark, Norway, Romania, Hungary, Iceland, Poland, Montenegro, Lithuania, Slovenia and the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira all dropping any remaining testing and isolation requirements for unvaccinated visitors.
Latvia and Sweden are set to join that list in the coming days.
Aside from the expected lifting of restrictions in Brazil, unvaccinated travelers in South American can already enter Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru or Venezuela, provided they undergo testing.
A more complete list of international restrictions is available here for US travelers, but the situation is fluid in many countries.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro compared vaccine passports to a leash used on dogs as his administration battled to prevent the discriminatory measure from being implemented at a federal level in Brazil.
The former army officer told reporters last December that he would “rather die” than lose his freedom.
“We asked [the health regulator], why the health passport? What is that leash that they want to put on the Brazilian people? Where is our freedom? I would rather die than lose my freedom,” Bolsonaro said at the time.