RIO DE JANEIRO (REUTERS, AFP) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday (July 6) he had undergone another test for the novel coronavirus and his lungs were "clean", after local media reported he had symptoms associated with the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly played down the impact of the virus, even as Brazil has suffered one of the world's worst outbreaks, with more than 1.6 million confirmed cases and 65,000 related deaths, according to official data on Monday.
CNN Brasil and newspaper Estado de S.Paulo reported that he had symptoms of the disease, such as a fever.
Bolsonaro told supporters outside the presidential palace that he had just visited the hospital and been tested.
"I can't get very close," he said in comments recorded by Foco do Brasil, a pro-government YouTube channel. "I came from the hospital. I underwent a lung scan. The lung's clean."
The president's office said in a statement that the president is at his home and is "in good health".
The right-wing populist has often defied local guidelines to wear a mask in public, even after a judge ordered him to do so in late June.
On Saturday, Bolsonaro published photos on social media in which he is seen without a face mask at a lunch with the US ambassador and several ministers celebrating the July 4th holiday.
Since he was in a private residence, he did not break the new law - but that didn't spare him from an avalanche of criticism on social media for not setting a good example.
The US embassy in Brasilia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bolsonaro tested negative for the coronavirus after several aides were diagnosed following a visit to US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago, Florida, estate in March.
CNN Brasil reported that Bolsonaro has begun taking the drugs hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, which he touts as a Covid-19 treatment despite little proof of their effectiveness. Bolsonaro's official events on Tuesday have been cancelled, according to CNN Brasil.
On Monday, the far-right leader made more changes to weaken a law requiring that face masks be worn in public places in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
He had already watered down the Bill last Friday by vetoing several articles, including ones requiring employers to supply face masks for their staff and another mandating that public authorities should provide face coverings for "economically vulnerable people".
Now he has also vetoed articles requiring masks be worn in prisons and another obliging businesses to provide information on how to wear masks properly.
Some states have already made the wearing of masks mandatory, but this was the first such law on a national level.
