Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced on Saturday he has tested negative for the new coronavirus weeks after testing positive.
The 65 years old president who announced this on his Twitter page attributed his recovery to the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as he posted a picture of himself holding a packet of the drug.
Later, local media reported that he took a motorcycle ride through Brasilia and visited some shops, with small crowds gathering around him.
“I didn’t feel anything, not even in the beginning. If I hadn’t taken the test, I wouldn’t have known I had the virus,” he told them, according to videos played in the media.
The president, who has routinely downplayed the virus he calls a “little flu” but which is currently ravaging his country, spent nearly 20 days self-isolating at his official residence in the capital Brasilia, the Alvorada Palace.
During that time he underwent at least three more virus tests, all positive.
The president has appeared to continue flouting virus precautions even after his diagnosis.
On Thursday he was seen going for a spin on his motorcycle and chatting maskless with a team of groundskeepers outside the presidential palace.
The same day he admitted in a live Facebook video that he was feeling “a bit wretched at being imprisoned here.”
Bolsonaro also continued greeting supporters from quarantine, separated by a narrow reflecting pond but maskless.
And he was spotted in the palace gardens feeding — and occasionally getting bitten by — rheas, a large South American bird related to the emu.
– RT-PCR para Sars-Cov 2: negativo.
– BOM DIA A TODOS. pic.twitter.com/CkdV59yGXP— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) July 25, 2020
