- Title: Brazil's Bolsonaro ventures outside as he recovers from coronavirus
- Date: 8th July 2020
- Summary: BRASILIA, BRAZIL (JULY 8, 2020) (REUTERS) BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT JAIR BOLSONARO (WHITE SHIRT, DARK TROUSERS) WEARING A FACE MASK OUTSIDE ALVORADA PALACE GREATER RHEA BIRDS ON PALACE GROUNDS VARIOUS OF BOLSONARO PACING PALACE GROUNDS BIRDS IN PALACE GROUNDS VARIOUS OF BOLSONARO WALKING AND SPEAKING ON THE PHONE BRAZILIAN SOLDIERS IN PALACE GROUNDS BOLSONARO SPEAKING TO MAN AND LOOKING AT HIS PHONE/ BOLSONARO ENTERING PALACE EXTERIOR OF PRESIDENTIAL PALACE BOLSONARO SEEN THROUGH WINDOW SITTING INSIDE PALACE
- Embargoed: 22nd July 2020 16:42
- Keywords: Alvorada Palace Brasilia Brazil Coronavirus. COVID-19 President Jair Bolsonaro sick Bolsonaro virus
- Location: BRASILIA, BRAZIL
- City: BRASILIA, BRAZIL
- Country: Brazil
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001CLYAE6F
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday (July 8) he was "doing very well" after contracting the coronavirus, and credited an unproven drug for his mild symptoms.
Bolsonaro was seen in the grounds of the presidential Alvorada Palace in Brasilia. He tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday (July 7), joining a small list of world leaders who have caught the disease.
But the diagnosis looks to have done little to alter the 65-year-old former army captain's view of the illness, which he has dismissed in the past as just "a little flu."
On Tuesday evening, Bolsonaro said he was already feeling much better as he took what he described as his third dose of hydroxychloroquine.
There is little scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of the anti-malarial to treat COVID-19 but Bolsonaro, like U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, has trumpeted it as a potential cure.
"To those who root against hydroxychloroquine but don't present alternatives, I hate to say I'm doing very well using it and, thank God, I will still live much longer," Bolsonaro wrote in a Twitter post on Wednesday.
Bolsonaro's handling of the crisis has drawn criticism from public health experts as he fought state and city efforts to impose social distancing, arguing that the economic damage would be worse than the disease itself.
With 1.6 million confirmed cases, Brazil has the worst coronavirus outbreak outside the United States. The virus has killed more than 66,000 people in Latin America's largest country.
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