Coronavirus: Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro tests positive to COVID-19

In a flimsy mask surrounded by reporters, Jair Bolsonaro, who’d played down the virus, revealed his news | WATCH

A screen grab of TV Brasil showing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announcing his positive coronavirus test. Picture: AFP

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, one of the most prominent world leaders to play down the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, said Tuesday he tested positive for the virus.

The 65-year-old, who frequently appeared in public without a mask until ordered last month by a court to wear one, had told a CNN reporter on Monday evening that he had been tested because he had a fever of 100.4 degrees and other symptoms related to Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. His temperature has gone down since then, and he will continue working, he said Tuesday.

“This virus is like the rain, it’s going to get you,” a masked Mr Bolsonaro told reporters Tuesday after revealing he was infected. He echoed earlier calls for Brazilians to get back to work. “Life goes on, Brazil has to produce.”

With the result, Mr Bolsonaro has joined the small group of heads of government who have been infected, including U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, along with dozens of high-level officials and politicians around the world.

Mr Bolsonaro said Monday that he had a blood oxygen level of 96, considered within the normal range, and that he underwent a chest X-ray which showed no problems. Mr Bolsonaro is in good health and resting at the presidential residence, his office said Tuesday.

Since the pandemic began, the right-wing president has played down the severity of the virus, comparing it to a “little flu.”

Even as the virus began to spread, the president waded into crowds and called on people to get back to work. He fired one health minister and another quit over the government’s response to the pandemic, and their replacement hasn’t been named. Brazil is second behind the U.S. with 65,487 deaths and 1.6 million confirmed cases.

“The main factor that’s responsible for Brazil being the second country in the world for infections, for deaths, is the irresponsible stance of the president,” said José Gomes Temporão, health minister under former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2007 to 2010, and a physician with a doctorate in public health.

US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, in March 7. Picture: AFP

“We’ve gone two months without a health minister, and our president doesn’t listen to science, does not respect the advice of experts, doesn’t respect the recommendations of the WHO,” Mr Temporão said.

Mr Bolsonaro has pressured state and local officials to allow non-essential businesses to reopen, and in the past week vetoed important parts of a law requiring people to wear masks in public and publicly accessible spaces. With the vetoes, churches, shops and prisons, among other places, are exempt from the law even as the number of confirmed cases and deaths have been rising.

The president fired his first health minister, the popular Luiz Henrique Mandetta, in April because the physician called for social isolation. Less than a month later, new health Minister Nelson Teich quit after opposing the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the infected even as the president was insisting on using the drug to fight the virus.

Mr Bolsonaro said he was taking the controversial medicine.

Dow Jones