(CNN) Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro has fired his health minister after weeks of infighting and threats over the country's coronavirus strategy.

"I just heard from President Jair Bolsonaro the notification of my discharge as Health Minister," the outgoing minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta tweeted Thursday, thanking his colleagues and wishing success for his replacement.

He will be replaced by Nelson Teich, an oncologist who supported Bolsonaro's presidential campaign.

Mandetta was one of Brazil's biggest proponents of social distancing, supporting governors' decisions to shut down schools and businesses. But his approach put him at odds with Bolsonaro, who has previously downplayed Covid-19 as nothing more than a "little flu" and warned that the economic fallout from isolation could be worse than the virus itself.

Mandetta also challenged the president's insistence that malaria drugs are the solution to the Covid-19 crisis. While Brazil has launched trials involving the drugs, Mandetta has warned there is no evidence that they are effective in treating the symptoms.

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