According to local media, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for coronavirus.
On Saturday night President Donald Trump dined at Mar-a-Lago with Bolsonaro and shook hands with his fellow world leader.
The President stated at 3 p.m. that he would hold a press conference. In the White House on a coronavirus on Friday.
The communications chief of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, Fábio Wajngarten, checked positively just days after flying with Bolsonaro to a meeting in Florida with Trump and senior aides. In a statement Thursday White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said that “exposures from the case are being assessed, which will dictate next steps.”
The White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said on Thursday that both Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence had “nearly no encounters” with Wajngarten and therefore did not need to be checked.
But Wajngarten posted a photo of himself, Trump, Pence and Brazilian TV host Alvaro Garnero during the visit on Instagram, while Wajngarten (wearing glasses) was seen just behind Bolsonaro and Trump in one video.
Although Trump did not take any overt action in response, two Republican lawmakers announced that after coming into touch with Bolsonaro’s delegation they will be self-quarantine for two weeks.
The Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who met Bolsonaro in Miami, and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was in Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, confirmed on Thursday that they would isolate themselves.
Federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations warn that coronavirus can spread “between people in close contact with each other (about 6 ft).”
A statement from the Brazilian government said: “The Republic’s presidential medical service has adopted and is taking all the appropriate preventive measures to maintain the health of the republic’s president and the entire presidential committee that accompanied him on the recent trip to the United States, as well as the presidential palace personnel.
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The Mar-a-Lago meeting also included Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner , Trump’s son-in-law, personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Brazil’s foreign minister Ernesto Araujo and Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, among others, who is a federal lawmaker. That evening, Vice President Mike Pence went to Mar-a-Lago.
“We had dinner with the whole delegation at Mar-a-Lago in Florida,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday. “I don’t know whether there was a press aide. But we did nothing very unusual”.
The reported infection comes after Trump had frequent contact with people who had contact with people who were testing positive for the virus themselves. Trump’s newly named personnel manager, Mark Meadows, emerged from Thursday’s self-quarantine.
It was not immediately clear what steps were being taken by the White House to protect the President from the virus. Trump cancelled his political travel for the coming weeks on Wednesday but he disregarded medical and public health experts ‘ advice to stop shaking hands.