Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro contracts COVID-19, announces it himself on Brazil national TV

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. PHOTO | AFP

The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro contracts COVID-19 declares live on television.


“It came back positive,” a mask-wearing Bolsonaro told a hand-picked group of reporters on Tuesday lunchtime outside his official residence.



“There’s no reason for fear. That’s life,” the president added. “Life goes on. I thank God for my life and the role I’ve been given to decide the future of this great nation that is called Brazil.”


Bolsonaro, 65, has frequently trivialized the pandemic and mocked social distancing, even as Brazil became the second-worst-hit country after the United States, with more than 65,000 deaths and 1.6m confirmed cases.


In March, as Covid-19 claimed its first victims in Brazil, the far-right populist used an address to the nation to brag that, if infected, he would quickly shake off the illness thanks to his “athlete’s background”.