Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro Tests Positive For Coronavirus After Calling It 'Little Flu'

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, 65, announced Tuesday in televised remarks that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

“It came back positive,” a mask-wearing Bolsonaro told a group of reporters.

Bolsonaro also said that "there’s no problem. It’s natural. There’s no dread. It’s life."

Boslonaro, 65, a far-right politician who began his term in January 2019, has frequently downplayed the virus, calling it the “little flu,” and arguing with governors over lockdown policies. He has claimed his athletic past would protect him from the virus.

The U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, Todd Chapman, met with Bolsonaro at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia on Saturday. A photo on Twitter shows Chapman, Bolsonaro and others gathered around a table without masks. Chapman has not been showing symptoms of the virus since that meeting, according to a tweet from the U.S. Embassy in Brazil.

Bolsonaro was tested Monday evening after developing fever-like symptoms.

Bolsonaro has touted the controversial treatment hydroxychloroquine as an effective drug against the virus. In mid-April, Bolsonaro fired Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta after disagreements over how to best handle the outbreak. Mandetta’s replacement, health entrepreneur Nelson Teich, quit the health minister position in May after just four weeks on the job because he did not agree with Bolsonaro’s promotion of anti-malarial drugs as a COVID-19 treatment.

Brazil currently has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world. The virus has disproportionately impacted Afro-Brazilians and the country’s low-income favela communities.

As of Tuesday at 11:50 p.m. ET, there are 1,623,284 cases of the virus in Brazil, with the country’s death toll at 65,487, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Another major Latin American leader, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said Tuesday he tested negative for COVID-19. This week Obrador will travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Donald Trump.