Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, has announced live on television that he has tested positive for Coronavirus but feels ‘perfectly well’ and has only mild symptoms.
‘I’m well, normal. I even want to take a walk around here, but I can’t due to medical recommendations,’ On Tuesday, July 7, Bolsonaro told a group of journalists – insisting that he only had mild symptoms.
The 65-year-old right-wing leader on Monday, July 6, told supporters in Brasilia that he had been tested in a hospital and an X-ray showed his lungs were ‘clean.’
‘I can’t get very close,’ he said in comments recorded by Foco do Brasil. ‘I came from the hospital. I underwent a lung scan. The lung’s clean.’
The test was his fourth Coronavirus test, having tested negative three times in March, following a meeting in Florida with US president Donald Trump.
Bolsonaro ‘s response to the Coronavirus outbreak in Brazil has been widely criticized, with many blaming him for high death tolls and cases. Brazil currently lacks a permanent health minister after two officials quit the job in less than a month after clashing over the pandemic with Bolsonaro.
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the South American country has suffered one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world, with more than 1.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 65,000 deaths.