Brasilia: Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga was tested positive for Covid-19 Tuesday after attending the UN General Assembly in New York who was inaugurated by his President, Jair Bolsonaro, according to an official statement.
“Other delegation members have been tested and negative,” said the Press Release of the Brazilian government.
Queiroga, who has received the Covid-19 vaccine, is the second member of the Bolsonaro group to test the positive virus since arriving in New York for the UN meeting.
The 55-year-old health minister will remain in the United States for a period of isolation, even though the rest of the delegation has returned to Brazil.
Bolsonaro, who appeared without a mask on several occasions during the trip, has not been vaccinated and repeated that he would be the “last” Brazil to receive a vaccine.
Queiroga with Bolsonaro, who last year survived the virus, at several events, including a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday.
He is “just fine,” said the statement.
He wrote on Twitter who while following “all health security protocols,” Ministry “will continue to take decisive action to handle pandemics in Brazil.” Bolsonaro caused stirring on social media after a photo showed him to take some precautions against temporary transmission around others in his delegation, when he took a piece of pizza from the New York street vendor.
The Minister of Health was the only one in the photo wearing a mask, but he had pulled it down his chin.
Under the fire for the handling of the controversial pandemic, which has claimed more than 591,000 lives in Brazil, Bolsolaro opened the General Assembly with a speech where he made several misleading or inaccurate statements, some of them were related to the AFP pandemic check.
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