Brazil President Removes Mask After Testing Covid-19 Positive, Twitter Asks, Is This a Joke?

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday announced that he had tested positive for coronavirus but said he was feeling "perfectly well" and had only mild symptoms.

Bolsonaro, who had earlier been criticised for downplaying the virus by calling it a "little flu", told journalists in person that he had indeed contracted the infection and backed a few steps before removing his mask and saying, "Just look at my face: I’m fine".

When wearing a face veil and washing hands are a bunch of preventive measures to break the chain of the lethal infection, Twitterati indicated worries at the obvious carelessness of the Brazillian



President. 

In the meeting communicate on state-run TV Brasil, Bolsonaro said he started feeling sick on Sunday and has been taking hydroxychloroquine, an enemy of malarial medication with dubious viability against COVID-19.

Brazil has the world's second-largest outbreak behind the United States. Latin America's largest country has more than 1.6 million confirmed cases and 65,000 COVID-19 deaths.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly defied local guidelines to wear a mask in public even after a judge ordered him to do so in late June. Bolsonaro has also railed against social distancing rules supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).