The Federal Court has ordered the Union to pay the wife and mother of an ambulance driver from Blumenau, in the Itajaí Valley, compensation due to health workers who died while working to care for Covid-19 patients.

The action taking place at the Blumenau Federal Court has taken a new turn this week; There is still an appeal – Photo: Pixabay/Reproduction

The 43-year-old man was a driver and municipal government employee, according to the Federal Court. He died at age 43 on March 31, 2021, after being hospitalized for coronavirus, approximately 20 days after testing positive for the disease.

The amount to be paid to the family of a Covid-19 victim is R$50 thousand.

The verdict was handed down last Monday (11) and signed by Judge Rosimar Terezinha Colm. The total amount of compensation to be received is R$50 thousand.

According to the verdict, since the man, who worked as a municipal civil servant for nine years, had no children, the next recipient of compensation, in addition to his partner, is his mother.

In contrast to the Federal Court’s decision, the Union argued during the trial that there was no evidence of a direct link between the cause of death and the driver’s performance, but this argument was not accepted.

The law states that “Covid-19 is considered to be a cause of permanent disability or death even if it was not the sole, underlying or proximate cause, provided that there is a temporal relationship between the date of onset of the disease and the occurrence of permanent disability or death.”

“In fact, the author was a medical professional, as provided for by Law No. 14,128/2021. [que inclui a condução de ambulâncias entre as atividades de saúde] and suffered from Covid-19, which culminated in his death, resulting in financial compensation,” Judge Blumenau said in her decision. The decision can still be appealed.