Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for COVID-19, he announced today.
Bolsonaro himself announced the result, speaking on Brazilian TV channels Tuesday. “Everyone knew that it would reach a considerable part of the population sooner or later. It was positive for me,” he said, referring to the Covid-19 test he took Monday.
“On Sunday, I wasn’t feeling very well. On Monday, it got worse when I started feeling tired and some muscle pain. I also had a 38-degree [Celsius] fever. Given those symptoms, the presidential doctor said there was suspicion of Covid-19,” Bolsonaro said, adding that he then went to hospital where scans of his lungs “came back clean.”
Bolsonaro said he’s taking hydroxychloroquine, even though clinical trials show that the drug does not work for patients with COVID-19. Other world leaders, including Honduras’ President Juan Orlando Hernández and United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have also contracted the virus.
Bolsonaro was tested for COVID-19 back in March after his aide tested positive for the virus. He’d just attended a dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. At the time of publication, there are more than 11.6 million confirmed cases of the disease worldwide, and over 539,000 people have died.
