Brazil's president tests positive for COVID-19
In this file photo, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro wears a face mask during a press conference on the coronavirus pandemic COVID-19 at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil on March 20, 2020.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro says he has tested positive for COVID-19 after months of downplaying the virus’ severity.
Bolsonaro confirmed the test results on Tuesday while wearing a mask and speaking to reporters in the capital Brasilia.
“I’m well, normal. I even want to take a walk around here, but I can’t due to medical recommendation.”
The president has often appeared in public to shake hands with supporters and mingle with crowds, at times without a mask. He has said that his history as an athlete would protect him from the virus, and that it would be nothing more than a “little flu” were he to contract it.
He has also repeatedly said that there is no way to prevent 70 percent of the population falling ill with COVID-19, and that local authorities’ measures to shut down economic activity would ultimately cause more hardship than allowing the virus to run its course.
Cities and states last month began lifting restrictions imposed to control the spread of the virus, as their statistical curves of deaths began to decline along with the occupation rate of its intensive care units.
Brazil, the world’s sixth most populous nation, is the second worst-hit country by the pandemic after the United States.
