Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during the ceremony to extend emergency aid to informal workers, at the Planalto Palace, in Bras??lia, Brazil, on June 30, 2020. Photo: DIDA SAMPAIO/ESTADAO CONTEUDO (Agencia Estado via AP Images)
BY Femi Owolabi
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.
He had been comical with his management of the pandemic in his country.
He said in April that if he got infected, he would not have to worry as he “wouldn’t feel anything [and] 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.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bolsonaro had been accused of censorship and an attempt to erase the memory of the dead over inconsistencies with publication of data on the rate of infections in the country.
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 figure of deaths and confirmed cases, as well as the 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.
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