As Brazil’s coronavirus numbers continue to rise with the second-highest cases in the world, the country’s president Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for Covid-19, he announced Tuesday.
Bolsonaro is the second world leader to test positive for the novel virus, after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was diagnosed with Covid-19 in March. He was later moved to an intensive care unit before recovering.
Bolsonaro has long downplayed the virus in speeches and online, calling the pandemic a “fantasy” and referring to Covid-19 as “a little flu.”
On March 30, Twitter deleted two tweets written by Bolsonaro for going against public health information. In those posts, Bolsonaro touted the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 relief and told people to stop social distancing guidelines.
Bolsonaro took a coronavirus test on Monday after the Brazilian media reported that he had a fever. On Tuesday, the president said, “Everyone knew that it would reach a considerable part of the population sooner or later. It was positive for me.” Bolsonaro also said he did a lung screening and they came back “clean.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Brazil’s coronavirus numbers have ballooned, making the country one of the largesthotspots in the world. When Brazil’s death toll reached the thousands in April, Bolsonaro told reporters, “So what? It’s too bad. What do you want me to do about it?”
Now, Brazil has over 1.6 million positive cases of coronavirus with 65,000 deaths. The only other country with more is the United States, with almost 3 million cases as of Tuesday afternoon.
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