Man who met Trump tests positive
BRASILIA/WASHINGTON: A close aide to Brazil’s president who attended a dinner with American President Donald Trump at Mara-Lago over the weekend tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported.
Fabio Wajngarten, President Jair Bolsonaro’s communications secretary, will have his samples submitted for a second test for final confirmation, Estado reported without saying how it obtained the information.
He was part of the presidential entourage during a trip to Florida earlier this week. Pictures posted on social media show him sideby-side with Trump, wearing a Make Brazil Great Again hat.
Bolsonaro cancelled his official agenda on Thursday and remains at the presidential palace. He is under medical observation, according to two people close to him who requested anonymity because the information isn’t public.
Asked about the development, the US president said he was “not concerned”.
“We did nothing very unusual, we sat next to each other for a period of time,” he told reporters at the White House.
Wajngarten and Bolsonaro’s office didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
Three other high-ranking authorities accompanied Bolsonaro during his dinner with Trump: defence minister Fernando Azevedo; foreign affairs minister Ernesto Araujo, and institutional security minister Augusto Heleno.
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden on Wednesday cancelled political rallies in Florida and Illinois due to concerns about the pandemic and replaced them with what his campaign called “virtual events” in the two states. The two states will vote on Tuesday along with Ohio and Arizona in the US primaries for the November presidential election.
US Congress is shutting the Capitol to the public until April, officials announced Thursday, a rare step that underscores the growing gravity with which the government is reacting to the viral outbreak.
In a statement, the House and Senate sergeants at arms said congressional office buildings and the Congressional Visitor Center, through which tourists enter the Capitol, were also being shuttered.