BRAZILIAN leader Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for Covid-19, he has confirmed.
The president made the announcement live on television. “It came back positive,” he told reporters.
Bolsonaro had said he would undergo a test after having an X-ray of his lungs on Monday. He had not said whether he was showing symptoms of the coronavirus.
The right-wing president, who has repeatedly downplayed the risks of the disease, told supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia that he is feeling well and that his lungs were "clear".
Brazil's supreme court published documents in May showing that Bolsonaro tested negative three times in March after meeting with US leader Donald Trump in Florida.
The president Bolsonaro has repeatedly appeared in public without wearing a mask, shaking hands with supporters and mingling with crowds.
He has fiercely criticised local leaders' restrictions on activity and said the economic impact of shutdowns would inflict more hardship than the virus.
The positive diagnosis comes just three days after he had lunch at the home of the US ambassador to Brazil, Todd Chapman, in the capital, Brasilia. Top cabinet members, pictured without face masks, were also present at the Independence Day celebration.
Newspaper O Globo reports that Bolsonaro began complaining of tiredness on Saturday night, after his lunch with the US ambassador, and continued feeling unwell the following day.
More than 60,000 deaths linked to Covid-19 have been recorded in Brazil, with the president's anti-scientific approach to the pandemic cited as a key factor in the soaring death toll.
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