Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for coronavirus again
- Results suggest president has yet to recover from infection diagnosed last week, but he insists he won’t get serious symptoms due to good physical condition
- Brazil has recorded nearly 2 million cases in pandemic, which Bolsonaro played down as a ‘little flu’
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has again tested positive for coronavirus, he told reporters on Wednesday in Brasilia, suggesting he has yet to recover from an infection first diagnosed last week.
Since catching the virus, the president has said he remains in good health and he would resume his normal work schedule if he tested negative this week. On Wednesday he said he would get tested again in a few days.
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Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for Covid-19, removes mask at press conference
Bolsonaro, a former army captain, first announced his diagnosis on July 7 after dismissing the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, calling it a “little flu” even as Brazil’s outbreak became the worst in the world outside the United States.
He played down the country’s mounting death toll – now over 74,000, out of nearly 2 million confirmed cases – and said his good physical condition would prevent him from developing serious symptoms if he got ill.
Bolsonaro has also sidelined medical experts in Brazil’s handling of the pandemic, pushed back against state and city lockdowns and circulated often in public without a mask, drawing criticism from public health specialists.
He has also said he was taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, an unproven Covid-19 treatment that he and US President Donald Trump have touted as a remedy for the coronavirus.