Health

Bolsonaro undergoes COVID-19 testing after lung X-ray

Brasilia, Jul 6 (efe-epa).- Brazil’s president on Monday underwent a lung X-ray and a coronavirus test, his fourth since the health crisis began, according to officials.

President Jair Bolsonaro took a COVID-19 test Monday night at a hospital in Brasilia and the result will be released Tuesday, Brazil’s presidential office said in a statement.

It added that the president is in good health, although according to CNN Brazil he has a fever of 38ºC is taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug unproven against the virus.

Earlier, Bolsonaro told a group of supporters at Alvorada Palace, his official residence in Brasilia, that he had just been to hospital to have a lung X-ray and that he was going to undergo another test for the novel coronavirus.

“I got back from the hospital just now. I had a lung X-ray and it is clean, OK? I am going to get tested for COVID-19 shortly, but everything is fine,” the far-right leader said.

The president, one of the few world leaders denying the dangers of the disease by describing it as a “little cold” and who disagrees with social isolation measures, was wearing a mask when he approached his followers, whom he took photos with.

Bolsonaro, 65, has previously undergone three tests for the virus, which in Brazil already left 1.6 million people infected and nearly 65,500 dead. According to the president, each test was negative but he has refused to share them.

The newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo requested the results of the three tests before a court, claiming that the results are considered in the “public interest” since Bolsonaro is the head of state.

After a long judicial procedure, a Supreme Court judge in May ordered the disclosure of the tests, in which the result was indeed negative for all three.

The first two tests were carried out in March after an official visit to Miami, United States, where he met with his American counterpart Donald Trump, and in which half of his party, made up of about 40 people, tested positive for COVID-19. .

Bolsonaro, who considers the imposition of quarantines a “crime” because, according to him, they are ruining the economy of the country, has underestimated the disease and contradicted health recommendations since the beginning of the crisis in the country.

Brazil Monday ranked as the second country in the world with most deaths and confirmed cases.

During the health emergency and with social distancing measures in force, the president has walked many times in some neighborhoods of Brasilia to talk to the residents, often without a mask, which is mandatory in Brasilia.

He has also participated in several protests in favor of his government, causing gatherings, and in which the “closure” of Congress and parliament was being called for through a “military intervention” that would keep him in power. EFE-EPA

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