Caixa Econômica Federal, the Brazilian state-owned savings bank, reported that the first payments of the BRL 600 ($118) emergency aid granted by the federal government to informal and unemployed workers as a measure against the economic impact of the coronavirus.

In total, around BRL 1.5 billion ($294 million) were transferred to the savings account of 2,586,575 people. Up until Thursday morning, more than 28 million Brazilians had already applied to be recipients of the benefit.