Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for coronavirus, according to local reports.
One of the major newspapers in Rio de Janeiro, Journal O Dia, reported the news. President Donald Trump dined with Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night and shook hands with his fellow world leader.
Bolsonaro was checked for the disease after his aide Fabio Wajngarten tested positive for it. The results of a second test on the Brazilian president are expected to be known on Friday.
On Thursday, Trump brushed aside concerns about the encounter – the latest in a series of brushes the president has had with the highly-contagious disease.
Both Bolsonaro and Wajngarten, his press secretary, were at the Winter White House Saturday night.
Trump and the first family have resisted going into self-quarantine despite other lawmakers who came into contact with those testing positive for the disease going into voluntary isolation.
Other world leaders, too, are self-quarantining. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in a voluntary 14-day quarantine after his wife, Sophie, tested positive for the disease.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is pictured with his son Eduardo Bolsonaro (center) and an adviser, inside Alvorada Palace in Brasilia
From left: Vice President Mike Pence, President Donald Trump, and Fabio Wajngarten, the communications secretary for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. The three men posed for a photo on Saturday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro is seen at the Alvorada Palace, after reports of the coronavirus, accompanied by a man in a surgical mask
Several members of the first family were at the Winter White House that night where there was a birthday party for Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., in addition to the working dinner for the Brazilian delegation.
One of those was Ivanka Trump, who, it was revealed late Thursday, had another brush with the disease.
She and Attorney General Bill Barr posed for a photograph with Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on March 5 – days before he tested positive for coronavirus.
They were meeting as part of a meeting between officials from the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US. The next day, Ivanka Trump attended the dinner at Mar-a-Lago with her father and Bolsonaro.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert at the National Institutes of Health, said he would ‘likely’ have been tested after coming in contact with Bolsonaro’s aide who tested positive for the coronavirus.
When asked if he would get a test, he told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’: ‘Likely I would, but I’m not sure.
‘It depends on the circumstances,’ he added.
Wajngarten, the Bolsonaro aide who was at Mar-a-Lago for Saturday’s dinner and the birthday party, tested positive for the virus, setting off a chain of events on Thursday, including a test for his boss. Brazil has at least 73 confirmed cases of coronavirus and zero deaths thus far.
The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald reported on Thursday that Bolsonaro took two tests: ‘The result should be ready. But the presidential palace is now saying the result will only be released Friday, which likely means he had a second test, and that one takes longer,’ he wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he would self-quarantine and be tested for the virus. The South Carolina senator was at Mar-a-Lago this weekend.
‘Senator Graham was at Mar-a-Lago last weekend. He has no recollection of direct contact with the President of Brazil, who is awaiting results of a coronavirus test, or his spokesman who tested positive,’ Graham’s office said in a statement.
‘However, in an abundance of caution and upon the advice of his doctor, Senator Graham has decided to self-quarantine awaiting the results of a coronavirus test. This is a precautionary measure. He will continue to work from home,’ his office noted.
Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida also said that he will self-quarantine after he met with the Brazil delegation, which included Wajngarten.
President Trump, who was photographed standing next to Wajngartenn and Vice President Mike Pence at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night, said Thursday he was ‘not concerned’ about possibly contracting the virus.
‘Let’s put it this way: I’m not concerned,’ Trump told reporters Thursday while meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office.
Ivanka Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr posed with Australian minister Peter Dutton (right) at the White House. Dutton has since tested positive for the virus
The president hosted his Brazilian counterpart, Bolsonaro (right), for a working dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Vice President Mike Pence, President Donald Trump, and Fabio Wajngarten pose with ‘Make Brazil Great Again’ caps
Trump, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro with President Trump, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, and Ivanka Trump at a working dinner at Mar-a-Lago
Dr. Anthony Fauci said he may have to get tested after coming into contact with Brazilian official who tested positive
