Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro’s wife Michelle Bolsonaro and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Marcos Pontes have tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the president’s office announced on Thursday.
The first lady, 38, “is in good health and will follow all of the established protocols”, according to the president’s office.
Taking to Twitter, Pontes said that he had several symptoms of the disease and begun treatment, and would work remotely from his home.
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He wrote, “I am fine, just a few symptoms of a cold and headache. Now in isolation. Everything is going to be fine,” adding he would participate in trials of the antiparasitic, anti-viral drug nitazoxanide, which has been approved in Brazil for treating mild cases of COVID-19.
Last Saturday, Bolsonaro announced that he tested negative for the virus more than two weeks after he was first diagnosed on July 7.
Three of his close aides are now quarantined at home after testing positive, including Citizenship Minister Onyx Lorenzoni, Education Minister Milton Ribeiro and now Pontes.
On July 4, Bolsonaro exercised his veto power to water down parts of a national law that would require the use of face masks on public transportation, in commercial and religious places and other enclosed public spaces.
The Prime Minister had earlier tested negative for the COVID-19 after several aides were diagnosed following a visit to US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Florida, estate in March.
Brazil has the world’s second-largest outbreak, after the United States, with more than 2.5 million cases of infection and over 90,000 dead from the disease.
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