After spending months flouting public health guidelines and dismissing the threat posed by a pandemic that has killed more than half a million people worldwide, Brazillian President Jair Bolsonaro, 65, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Here are five components of the story:
- The Brazilian president who has long been dismissive of the virus and has often called it a “little flu”, said that his lungs were “clean” but he has tested positive for coronavirus.
- He has often urged local governors to lift lockdown orders and continued to step out in public without any major precautions, without a face covering and shaking hands in public.
- “We are sorry for all the dead, but that’s everyone’s destiny,” he said last month.
- Bolsonaro was tested at least thrice in March after meeting Donald Trump but all those tests came back negative.
- More than 1.6 million people have tested positive coronavirus in Brazil and at least 65,000 people have died there.
