Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on his Facebook page that the result of his second coronavirus test was negative.
“I inform that my second test for COVID-19 came back negative. Good night to all,” he wrote on a post accompanied by a photo of him against a Brazilian flag.
Bolsonaro’s press secretary Fabio Wajngarten, who accompanied him to a dinner with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on March 7, tested positive for the coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease.
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At least 15 other members of the Brazilian delegation who travelled with Bolsonaro to South Florida between March 7 and March 11 have been diagnosed with the disease, according to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.
The president was first tested last Thursday during a checkup at Brasilia’s Armed Forces Hospital after returning from the five-day trip during which he met with Brazilian business leaders and military commanders at the U.S. Southern Command in Miami.
He said on Friday, March 13, the result was negative. Over the weekend, Brazil’s Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said medical protocol recommended another test.
The announcement came after Brazil registered its first death from the coronavirus, according to Folha de S. Paulo. Bolsonaro’s government on Tuesday asked Congress to authorize a state of emergency that would allow it to lift fiscal targets and make more funds available to fight the spread of the virus in the nation of more than 200 million.
