Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday he has tested positive for COVID-19 after developing symptoms, including a high temperature and muscular pain.
The president told reporters in Brasilia that he was feeling better after being treated with hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that has not proven effective against the coronavirus.
Bolsonaro took the test on Monday. “It just turned out positive,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
Bolsonaro said he imagined he might already have been infected by the coronavirus earlier in the pandemic, given his frequent contact with the population.
“As president, I am on the front lines,” he said.
Bolsonaro has played down the clinical effects of the coronavirus and has insisted on reopening Brazil’s economy, although the virus continues to take its toll, with around 65,000 deaths in the country.
World Health Organization Executive Director for Health Emergencies Programme Mike Ryan said the agency wished Bolsonaro” a speedy recovery from this disease.”
“It brings home for us all the reality of this virus and no one is special in that regard. We are all exposed to the virus. We are equally vulnerable,” Ryan told reporters.
In March, Bolsonaro said he would “not have to worry” about the coronavirus, because “at most it would be like a little flu or a little cold.”