During an exclusive interview to TV Brasil and CNN Brasil, President Jair Bolsonaro reported Tuesday (Jul. 7) he testes positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The president called off his engagements in Bahia and Minas Gerais this week. The result came out at around 11 a.m. this morning. Bolsonaro said he feels fine.
“The result of the COVID-19 test run for President Bolsonaro on Monday night, [July] 6, and made available this morning, the seventh, displayed a positive diagnosis. The president has a good health condition and is at this moment at the Alvorada presidential residence,” an official note from the president’s press office issued early this afternoon reads.
Bolsonaro said the symptoms started on Sunday (5). “It started on Sunday, when I was feeling a little indisposed, and it grew worse on Monday, with malaise, fatigue, some muscular pain, and my temperature late in the afternoon reached 38 degrees,” he said during an interview aired on TV Brasil and other channels. As the president’s doctor considered the possibility of a COVID-19 infection, Bolsonaro had a CAT scan at Brasília’s Hospital of the Armed Forces, after which, he said, his lungs were seen to be clean.
“However, given the symptoms, the medical staff decided to apply hydroxychloroquine. I had the first pill yesterday at around 5 p.m., and also azithromycin. All that compound was administered, and, I must confess, since I wake up at night often, after midnight I felt better. At 5 a.m., I took the second dose, and I confess to you that I feel perfectly fine,” he said.
Prompt assistance and the way the medications are administered, he said, led to a quick improvement. “I stress here what doctors have said, that, with hydroxychloroquine in the early stages, the chances of success are nearly a hundred percent,” he reiterated. Other drugs are also being tested, but there are no medication of vaccine with a proven efficiency against COVID-19.
In the coming days, Bolsonaro will work online and in person at the Alvorada presidential residence, he said, adding he will run the test againt next week. “I’m taking these protocol measures in order not to contaminate anyone else. This is for everybody—the common citizen and the president alike,” he said.
