Brazilian President, Jair Tests Positive For COVID-19

Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, has tested positive for COVID-19. 

The president who announced this on Tuesday said he had been exhibiting symptoms, including high temperature, since Sunday. 

A fourth test conducted on Monday on the president showed he had the virus. 

The president had in April said if he got infected, he would not have to worry as he “wouldn’t feel anything; at most it would be like a little flu or a little cold”.

At the time, Brazil had recorded 40,000 cases and about 3,000 deaths.

Bolsonaro had been accused of censorship and an attempt to erase the memory of the dead over inconsistencies with publication of the data on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.

In June, Brazil had stopped releasing its total number of COVID-19 cases and deaths after recording an average of at least one death per minute.

The country’s health ministry website with the data was taken down and later brought up within 24 hours without the total number of deaths and confirmed cases, as well as number of active cases.

“I’m telling you right now, the United States left the WHO, and we’re studying that, in the future. Either the WHO works without ideological bias, or we leave too,” the president had said.

As of Tuesday, Brazil, the second worst-hit country after the US, has recorded 1.3 million cases of COVID-19, and more than 65,000 deaths.