Brazil Prez Bolsonaro tests positive for Covid

Sao Paulo, July 7

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday he tested positive for Covid, adding in a television interview that he was in good health despite running a fever.

The right-wing populist, who has played down the severity of the virus which he has called a “little flu,” took the test on Monday after developing symptoms.

In the interview broadcast on state-run TV Brasil, Bolsonaro said he began feeling ill on Sunday and had been taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug with unproven effectiveness against Covid. With 1.6 million confirmed cases and 65,000 deaths, Brazil has the world’s second-largest outbreak.

Meanwhile, Melbourne and some other cities in Australia’s Victoria state have been ordered back into lockdown for six weeks starting Wednesday after the state reported 191 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours.

Residents have been advised against leaving their homes apart for four activities — purchasing essential items, medical care or caregiving, exercise and study/work. “The public health teams have advised me to reimpose stage 3 stay-at-home restrictions. Staying at home, except for the four reasons to leave, effective from midnight tomorrow night for a period of six weeks,” Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday.

Iran has announced its highest single-day spike in deaths from the coronavirus, with 200 new fatalities. The spokesperson for the country’s health ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, blamed the spike on citizens who “do not abide by restrictive measures”. — Agencies