SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The health secretary of Osasco city in Brazil’s Sao Paulo metropolitan region was targeted in a shooting attack on Thursday night, the state department of public security said on Friday, adding police were investigating whether the incident was related to his efforts to fight the novel coronavirus.
“The victim, a public server of the city, had his vehicle hit by gunfire, but he was not injured,” the public security secretariat said, identifying him as Fernando Machado Oliveira.
Brazil’s TV Globo network reported that Oliveira told police he had received audio threats on his messaging app WhatsApp.
Osasco city had registered 3,965 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 343 deaths by June 3, data from the city hall showed.
(Reporting by Eduardo Simes; Writing by Gabriela Mello; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
