BOLSONARO ADMITS HE’S POSITIVE FOR COVID-19

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday he tested positive for the novel coronavirus, adding in a television interview that he was in good health despite running a fever, Ana Mano wrote for Reuters late on July 7, 2020.

The right-wing populist, who, like US President Donald Trump, has played down the severity of the virus which he has called a “little flu,” took the test on Monday after developing symptoms.

In the interview broadcast on state-run TV Brasil, Bolsonaro said he began feeling ill on Sunday and has been taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug with unproven effectiveness against COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have already dumped the anti-malarial as a possible cure for COVID-19, saying it doesn’t help those hit by the pandemic.

Brazil has the world’s second-largest outbreak behind the US. Latin America’s largest country has more than 1.6 million confirmed cases and 65,000 COVID-19 deaths. Bolsonaro has repeatedly defied local guidelines to wear a mask in public, even after a judge ordered him to do so in late June. Bolsonaro has also railed against social distancing rules supported by the WHO.