The power of the SUS in the fight against Covid-19: allocation of resources and actions in Brazilian municipalities

Abstract This article aimed to analyze how municipal governments responded to the health crisis and what measures they developed in terms of diagnosing Covid-19 and allocating resources from Brazil’s federal sources. To this end, information from a survey with 4,061 mayors coordinated by the National Confederation of Municipalities was systematized and compared with other official databases. We concluded that, despite the lack of coordination instruments developed at the federal level, the allocation of resources and the development of policies by the municipalities were guided by the concentration of regional reference services in large and medium-sized municipalities.