Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was bitten Monday by an ostrich-like bird he was trying to feed as he entered his second week of quarantine at the presidential palace in the capital Brasilia, local media reported.
He was bitten a week after announcing that he tested positive for the coronavirus.
According to local media, a rhea, a large, flightless type of bird, native to South America and distantly related to the ostrich and emu, pecked at Bolsonaro while trying to feed him during a walk through the Palace grounds. from Alvorada. Metropóles site, which shared photos of the incident.
Bolsonaro, 65, announced on July 7 that he tested positive for the virus and experienced fever, pain, and general discomfort. He dismissed a trip he had planned to the northeast of the state of Piauí, and all his meetings turned into video calls. The same coronavirus recommendations that he rejected for months, such as social estrangement and wearing masks, became part of his cloistered life in the palace.
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In a telephone interview with CNN Brazil from his official residence on Monday, the far-right populist leader explained that he plans to take another coronavirus test on Tuesday because he simply “cannot bear this routine of staying at home.” It is awful.”
His critics in Brazil mocked Bolsonaro after photos of his encounter with the bird began to circulate on social media. Communist Party congresswoman Jandira Feghali responded to a photo of the incident on Facebook, writing “100 percent.” Brazilian journalist Solange Mateus tweeted that “even animals recognize when someone is pernicious,” according to The Guardian. Biologist Flávio Souza also commented that “nature is healing”.
Since his diagnosis, Bolsonaro has held virtual meetings almost every day with Jorge Oliveira, secretary general of the government, to sign official documents. According to Oliveira’s office, a protocol was created so that the work could be done digitally.
That was how Bolsonaro interviewed candidates to head the education ministry, he said on Facebook on Thursday. The next day, he appointed Milton Ribeiro, a former vice dean of Mackenzie University in Sao Paulo, who preaches at a Presbyterian church in Santos, outside the metropolis.
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, center, speaks on the phone while standing outside his official residence, Palacio Alvorada, in Brasilia, Brazil, on Friday, July 10, 2020. (AP Photo / Eraldo Peres)
Brazil recorded more than 1.8 million cases of coronavirus, with more than 72,000 deaths as of Tuesday. Both its number of infections and the number of deaths ranked second worldwide, behind the United States.
Only a few aides previously infected with the new coronavirus were able to approach Bolsonaro last week, an aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak to journalists, he told the Associated Press. Bolsonaro also spent some time in the afternoons in front of the palace with photojournalists 400 yards away, on the other side of a garden. He had known his followers in that garden until his diagnosis, but no longer.
The new routine marks a radical change for Bolsonaro, who spent months attending meetings with his fans, going to bakeries and food trucks to mix and mingle. Sometimes he refused to wear a mask. He has mocked the restrictions that mayors and governors put in place to contain the spread of the virus, arguing that its economic impacts would cause more suffering than the virus, which he repeatedly called “a bit of the flu.”
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Bolsonaro took hydroxychloroquine pills for five days, Monday through Friday, according to a member of the presidential medical team who asked not to be identified, citing the patient’s confidentiality and because the person is not authorized to speak in public. The drug does not have a proven effect on the treatment of COVID-19 and may cause side effects such as cardiac arrhythmia, according to medical studies. As a result, Bolsonaro underwent electrocardiograms and blood tests, the person said.
Brazil’s presidential press office said in a statement that the president has had no medical problems with his treatment. The aide who spoke on condition of anonymity said Bolsonaro slept in a different room to keep First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro safe. He lives with her, her daughter, and her stepdaughter.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
