Jair Bolsonaro at the United Nations: The Brazilian Minister of Health has contracted the virus

The Brazilian Minister of Health, Marcelo Quiroga (photo), who is in New York with President Jair Bolsonaro on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly, announced on Tuesday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.

“I inform everyone that today I tested positive for the Corona virus. I will remain in quarantine in the United States, while following all health security protocols,” the minister said on social networks.

same plane

The government said in a note that Quiroga, who had been vaccinated against the Corona virus, was “fine” and stated that the rest of the Brazilian delegation had undergone diagnostic tests and they were negative.

Quiroga arrived in New York on Sunday on the same plane as Bolsonaro, who on Monday accompanied him during his bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Meetings

Later, he met with Brazilian researchers working in the United States and attended a dinner for Bolsonaro at the official residence of the Brazilian ambassador to the United Nations.

Earlier, the minister left a controversial photo when he referred to some demonstrators who were protesting against the Brazilian head of state in the vicinity of their hotel.

This Tuesday, Quiroga accompanied Bolsonaro to the plenary session of the UN General Assembly, where they met the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, and the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.

denial

Bolsonaro, who denies the seriousness of SARS-CoV-2, today opened the leaders’ speeches at the General Assembly, where he criticized social distancing measures to combat the epidemic and vaccination certificates that some countries have begun to require.

“We support vaccination,” the president said, but not the “health passport,” and confirmed that he has not yet been vaccinated and does not intend to do so until the “last” Brazilian does.

Bolsonaro’s resistance to vaccination sparked various controversies in New York, where its mayor, Bill de Blasio, criticized the Brazilian president’s stance.

cocktail

Bolsonaro has also benefited from his intervention at the United Nations to advocate for a controversial mixture of drugs sponsored by his government to combat the pandemic that includes unproven drugs against the Corona virus, such as chloroquine.

With more than 591,000 deaths and 21.2 million positive cases, Brazil is the second country with the highest number of deaths due to the Corona virus, after the United States, and the third with the largest number of infections, after the North American country and India.