Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday announced new steps to address the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic in a telephonic conversation with his US counterpart Donald Trump.

Bolsonaro said, “I spoke with Donald Trump and exchanged information about a problem that is global,” while promising an additional 110 billion reais ($22 billion) in spending to “preserve jobs” and aid states and municipalities, according to the media report.

Brazil leads Latin America with 5,717 confirmed coronavirus cases and 201 fatalities.

On Tuesday, while addressing in a television, Bolsonaro gave his first reaction to the outbreak was to accuse the media of sensationalism and denounce Brazil’s state governors for imposing lockdowns to stop the spread, called the pandemic as “greatest challenge of this generation”.

The Agriculture Ministry denied the existence of lockdown-related shortages and after media outlets published images from Wednesday showing the warehouse fully stocked and operating normally, Bolsonaro removed the video from his social media pages.

The President has already seen Twitter, Facebook and Instagram take down videos he posted after determining that they constituted disinformation.

Last week, Bolsonaro said that in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic powerhouse, the death toll seemed “too large.” Sao Paulo has the most cases and deaths so far of coronavirus in Brazil.

Earlier, the president released a list of essential services to be maintained amid the coronavirus pandemic that includes religious services, which are currently suspended in the country’s two most populous states as part of a prohibition on large gatherings.

After the publication of Bolsonaro’s decree, the Rio state Attorney General’s Office urged Governor Wilson Witzel to take steps to ensure “suspension of all and every kind of in-person gathering in the ambit of religious organizations.”

Bolsonaro asserts that social distancing should apply only to the elderly and infirm, even after more than a dozen of the people who accompanied him earlier this month on an official visit to the United States tested positive for COVID-19.

The Brazilian leader, who has previously dismissed precautions taken against the novel coronavirus as “hysteria” and “fantasy”, has been criticised for his response to the deadly outbreak.