Bolsonaro obtains Covid after minimizing its impact on Brazil

President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, who has consistently downplayed the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic as his country has climbed to second in the world for cases and deaths, has tested positive for Covid-19.

“I’m perfectly fine,” Bolsonaro told reporters in a live interview on Tuesday after announcing the results of his test. He is taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug which he touted as being effective against the virus, although its use has not been authorized by most health experts worldwide and may have side effects. dangerous side effects.

He joins other world leaders infected with the virus, including Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, both hospitalized during treatment.

“Everyone knew that sooner or later it would affect a large part of the population,” he said. “Life goes on. But if the economy does not work, it will lead to new forms of death and suicide.”

He told reporters that his last temperature reading was 36.7 degrees Celsius, or 98 degrees Fahrenheit.

He asked the reporters to walk away, then removed his mask to say, “You see, I’m fine. See you next week, God willing. “

Bolsonaro refused to use a mask in public and even fought the court over an order forcing him to do so. When announcing the results of his test, he refrained from suggesting that the Brazilians use masks, saying that all precautions should be weighed against the economic damage they could cause.

65-year-old president who, during his campaign to reopen the economy, called the virus “just a little flu”, repeatedly disobeyed medical advice to avoid contamination, mingling with the maskless crowd and shaking hands.

Late Monday, however, a video posted to YouTube showed a masked Bolsonaro trying not to get too close to the supporters who were waiting outside the presidential palace. He told them that he was following a doctor’s social distancing orders after showing symptoms of the virus, and added that an examination had shown that his lungs were “clean”.

But Bolsonaro recently had health problems. In September 2018, while campaigning for the president, he was stabbed in the abdomen, resulting in multiple surgeries. For months, he relied on a feeding tube and a colostomy bag. During his interview on Tuesday, he appeared weary of dark circles around the eyes.

Brazil has become a global hotspot for the virus, behind the United States with more than 65,000 confirmed deaths and more than 1.62 million cases in total. His response was erratic, with the president often clashing with state governors and other officials over quarantine measures and possible treatment. The Brazilian health ministry is currently headed by an army general after Bolsonaro sacked his prime minister and a second resignation.

The Brazilian real, which was gaining earlier in the day, fell after the announcement, joining a slide in other emerging market currencies. The stocks kept their losses.

“So what?”

Bolsonaro has downplayed the virus since Brazil confirmed its first case in late February. In a televised speech in March, he said he was not worried about being infected with the disease because he was “an athlete” in the past.

“If I am infected with the virus, I need not worry,” said Bolsonaro. “I wouldn’t feel anything. I would only be affected by a small flu. “

In April, asked about the news that Brazil had surpassed if China in terms of death by virus, Bolsonaro replied: “So what?” Asked about deaths from viruses at another time in the same month, he replied, “I’m not a gravedigger, okay?”

However, Bolsonaro could be seen coughing on a social media show Thursday while sitting next to six other people, none of whom wore masks. The representatives present were the Minister of Regional Development, Rogerio Marinho, and the director general of the state-owned Caixa Economica Federal bank, Pedro Guimaraes. Guimaraes was tested for the virus on Tuesday, his office said.

Since then, Bolsonaro has mingled with members of his administration and the general public, and has had lunch with the American ambassador to Brazil on Saturday. On that day, Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo tweeted an image of the lunch showing the president with his arm around the minister and seated next to the ambassador, Todd Chapman. The ambassador and his wife have both tested negative and will remain in quarantine, the US embassy said on Tuesday.

Monday, Bolsonaro did not participate in a ceremony he was supposed to organize, choosing instead to go to the hospital. The president then canceled most of his schedule for the rest of the week, including a planned trip to the state of Bahia.

This is not the first time that Bolsonaro has been tested for Covid-19. In March, after several members of his delegation visiting the United States contracted the virus, he said it had a negative result.

On June 25, he said on a live Facebook broadcast that he thought he had already contracted the virus.