Coronavirus: Brazilian president denies testing positive for Covid-19

Contrary to earlier reports in local media, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has denied testing positive for Covid-19.

Business Insider reports that the president said on his official Facebook profile that his results tested negative of the virus

Earlier reports had said Mr Bolsonaro had tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday after his press secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, had earlier tested positive for Covid-19.

It said Mr Bolsonaro’s result had come out positive though he is currently asymptomatic.

Mr Wajngarten had been part of the president’s entourage to the U.S. were they had met with the U.S. president Donald Trump.

Mr Bolsonaro during his trip had dined with Mr Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night.

Debunked

Earlier news in the media had said that Mr Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, had told Fox News that further testing was being done to confirm the diagnosis and that they expected results later on Friday.

However, the Business Insider quoted the Brazilian president to have said on Twitter that he tested negative.

He added that people should not believe the fake news.

“DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE MEDIA FAKE NEWS!”, he said

Fake news

While many high profile people have contracted the disease, Mr Bolsonaro is one of the few officials who have had to debunk news of testing positive to the virus.

Since the onset of the outbreak in December, the virus has infected many government officials around the world – from administrators to heads of state – and others are beginning to take precautionary measures after finding out they have been in contact with infected people.

However, the world has been battling with fake news surrounding Covid-19.

WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus had warned of fake alerts and posts circulating on social media.

WHO called it “infodemic” – an overwhelming amount of information on social media and websites – saying some are accurate while some are downright untrue.

Mr Ghebreyesus said what the world needs now is accurate information and not fake news which could cause more harm and panic.

Over 4,000 people have died from the disease globally with over 100,000 infected.