Brasilia, July 8 (TIWN) Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, who made light of the coronavirus pandemic and routinely ignored all precautions, has tested positive for the disease, reports said on Tuesday.

Bolsonaro confirmed the test results while wearing a mask and speaking to reporters in capital Brasilia.  "I'm well, normal. I even want to take a walk around here, but I can't due to medical recommendations,” Bolsonaro said.  The president has often appeared in public to shake hands with supporters and mingle with crowds, at times without a mask. He has said that his history as an athlete would protect him from the virus, and that it would be nothing more than a “little flu” were he to contract it.  He has also repeatedly said that there is no way to prevent 70% of the population falling ill with COVID-19, and that local authorities' measures to shut down economic activity would ultimately cause more hardship than allowing the virus to run its course. 

Cities and states last month began lifting restrictions that had been imposed to control the spread of the virus, as their statistical curves of deaths began to decline along with the occupation rate of its intensive-care units. Brazil, the world's sixth most populous nation, with more than 210 million people, is one of the global hot spots of the pandemic.  On Monday, Bolsonaro told supporters in Brasilia that he underwent an X-ray of his lungs that showed they were clean, and that he would be tested for COVID-19. On Tuesday, he told CNN Brasil that his fever had subsided.