Brazil: Jair Bolsonaro has symptoms of coronavirus and suspended his activities to take the test

Guido Nejamkis

07/06/2020 - 19:37

• Clarín.com
• World

President Jair Bolsonaro assured sympathizers, whom he found upon returning to the Alvorada Palace, that a lung study was carried out on Monday and a new examination would be done to verify if he was infected with the new coronavirus, the result of which will be disclosed on Tuesday. .

Bolsonaro left the government house with fever and tiredness, symptoms associated with the coronavirus, Clarín was told at the Planalto Palace.

Radio Bandeirantes reported late Monday that a first examination of the president had given a positive result and that the countertest on Tuesday was expected. It was the only Brazilian media that gave this information, while there was no official pronouncement on it.

Before that, in contact with CNN Brazil, the president declared that he had a fever of 38 degrees, and that he was taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug generally used to treat malaria that presents risks to patients and has no proven efficacy in treating infection by new coronavirus.

Bolsonaro has presented this drug as a kind of magic potion to treat Covid-19.

The president also indicated to that channel that the lung study consisted of an MRI.

Prior to that meeting with supporters and making statements to CNN Brazil, Bolsonaro suspended his commitments at the Planalto Palace and went to the Military Hospital in Brasilia , where he regularly reviews his health.

“I came now from the hospital, I did a lung image. Everything is clean. I'm going to take the Covid test now, but it's all good, "he said. Because of his age, 65, Bolsonaro is part of the risk group for the disease caused by the virus infection, which in Brazil has already killed more than 65,500 people.

In the conversation with supporters, who usually await him upon his departure and arrival from the presidential residence, Bolsonaro used a chinstrap , the use of which he has just vetoed in confined spaces, under the national law recently approved by Congress to regulate his use at the national level.

"Don't get too close," Bolsonaro asked his supporters, in another rare request from the Brazilian president, who routinely disobeys any scientific guidance on Covid-19 prevention.

As part of his official agenda, Bolsonaro had meetings with six ministers on Monday, including the Minister for the Economy, Paulo Guedes, in addition to the Secretary for Culture, Mario Frías, but later suspended his commitments, including participation in an official event on disability. to go to the Military Hospital, located a few kilometers from the government headquarters.

Bolsonaro has already undergone three swabs to detect Covid-19 . All the tests were carried out in March, when he returned from a meeting with his American colleague Donald Trump, in Miami, from which 23 people who accompanied him in his party returned infected.

On that occasion, Bolsonaro said that they had all presented a negative result, but he refused to show the tests, which were released two months later after the demand of a newspaper, O Estado de S.Paulo , before the Supreme Court of Justice with the argument that Brazilian society had the right to know the state of the president's health.

Bolsonaro also told CNN that he had a 96 percent blood oxygen measurement, a normal level . The government canceled the president's agenda for the rest of the week.

The information on the health of the Brazilian president, released by the president himself and not by doctors attending him, occurred on the same day that Bolsonaro extended the vetoes to the bill that made the use of chinstraps mandatory throughout Brazil. .

What is Coronavirus? How is it spread and what are its symptoms?

Bolsonaro vetoed, contrary to what was approved by Congress, its compulsory use in prisons, in addition to nullifying the need for businesses operating during the pandemic to report with posters on the correct way to wear face masks and the maximum number of people accepted in each establishment.

Previously he had vetoed its use in closed places such as shops and churches, which angered lawmakers, who are seeking to overturn the decision.

A few months ago, he referred to Covid-19 as a "flu" , related his "athlete's history" to the remote possibility of contracting the disease, and said that Brazilians should be studied because despite being immersed in sewers, they never became infected with nothing.