Brazil's Bolsonaro again tests positive for coronavirus

Bogota

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has again tested positive for Covid-19, but is feeling well, he said on Twitter on Wednesday. "Yesterday morning I took the test, last night the result was that I'm still positive," Bolsonaro said in a video posted on Twitter Wednesday evening, according to Deutsche press agency (dpa).

Last Tuesday, the 65-year populist politician, who along with his government has for months downplayed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, said that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Bolsonaro is working from his presidential residence in Brasilia, holding meetings with his ministers via videoconference.

Brazil has recorded nearly 2 million Covid-19 cases, the most in the world after the United States. More than 75,000 people have died from the disease. Experts assume that the actual figures are significantly higher, due to a lack of testing being carried out in Brazil. The country has 210 million inhabitants.

Bolsonaro earlier told broadcaster CNN Brazil that he has had no fever since July 6, when he first tested positive for the novel coronavirus. He said he had no breathing problems, nor loss of taste, and that new blood and heart tests had revealed nothing unusual.

Bolsonaro had previously been reluctant to wear a face mask and advocated opening up the economy despite the pandemic, arguing that economic hardship could ultimately cause more deaths. The president told CNN Brazil he was taking the drugs hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, which he has presented as Covid-19 treatments despite little scientific proof of their effectiveness.