Local responses to the Covid-19 in Brazil:

the social distancing measures in medium-sized cities in the first months of the pandemic

Abstract

This article aims to shed light on the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil regarding the governmental responses to the sanitary crisis during the first months of its outbreak. Since the outbreak started, government responses to the pandemic have been led by state governors and mayors. The major part of the analysis has focused on actions adopted by states and state capitals, overlooking those carried out in medium-sized cities. In this article, we analyze the legislative measures which aimed to promote social distancing in a sample of 49 municipalities with more than 200,000 inhabitants. We resorted to an index built by Moraes (2020) to classify the measures regarding their degree of restriction. The analysis revealed convergences and divergences between the measures enacted by state governments, mayors of capitals, and in medium-sized cities. It corroborates that mayors have mobilized their authority, but their decisions were constrained by state legislation and by the type of relationship established between states and municipalities.

Key-words: Covid-19, pandemic, social distancing, municipalities, local government