Brazil's president reportedly tested for coronavirus just days after sitting side-by-side with Trump at Mar-a-Lago
- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been tested for the novel coronavirus, according to Brazilian media reports.
- Less than a week ago, Bolsonaro sat side-by-side with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
- Fabio Wajngarten, Bolsonaro's press secretary, has tested positive for coronavirus. He was photographed standing next to Trump five days ago.
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been tested for coronavirus and is being monitored, Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported on Thursday, which comes just days after he sat side-by-side with US President Donald Trump at his Florida resort in Mar-a-Lago.
Bolsonaro's communications chief Fabio Wajngarten has tested positive for the virus, the Rio de Janeiro-based newspaper O Globo reported on Thursday.
Trump and Bolsonaro were photographed sitting next to each other.
Trump was also photographed standing next to Wajngarten five days before he tested positive for coronavirus.
Additionally, Trump was photographed shaking Bolsonaro's hand before dinner on Friday.
The White House and Brazilian Embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.
Trump has not been tested for coronavirus, but recently signaled he'd be open to it.
The president has been in the vicinity of several US lawmakers who have self-quarantined in recent days after interacting with an infected individual at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland last month.
When asked by reporters on Tuesday why he's not been tested, Trump said he feels "extremely good."
It can take from two to 14 days for coronavirus symptoms - fever, cough, shortness of breath - to show up, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Bolsonaro, much like Trump, has sought to downplay the threat of the novel coronavirus in recent days and accused the media of pushing a "fantasy."
"During the past year, obviously, we have had moments of crisis. A lot of that is fantasy. And coronavirus, which is not all the mainstream media makes it out to be," the Brazilian leader said on Tuesday.
Similarly, Trump on Monday tweeted: "The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant."
But Trump's downplaying of the outbreak has not been able to outrun the facts on coronavirus, or the growing threat it poses within the US.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic as the US's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned House lawmakers that the bottom line is the outbreak is "going to get worse."
Trump on Wednesday evening gave an error-filled Oval Office address on new travel restricts for Europe amid coronavirus, as he sought to downplay the US government's early stumbles in its response to the outbreak.