Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s son contracts COVID-19

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, said Tuesday he has tested positive for the new coronavirus but was asymptomatic.

The 39-year-old senator’s office said in a statement he was “feeling fine,” isolating at home and taking the anti-malaria drug chloroquine, which his father has aggressively pushed as a treatment for COVID-19 despite studies finding it is ineffective against the virus.

Known for his staunch support of his father, the younger Bolsonaro is under investigation for an alleged embezzlement scheme when he was a state lawmaker for Rio de Janeiro.

He is the fourth member of the presidential family to test positive for the virus.

Bolsonaro himself, 65, caught it last month, forcing the far-right leader, a fierce critic of lockdown measures against the virus, into quarantine for three weeks.

First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro, 38, tested positive days later. The president’s fourth son, 22-year-old Jair Renan, tested positive last week.

The virus, which Bolsonaro has compared to a “little flu,” has infected more than 3.6 million people and killed more than 115,000 in Brazil, the second-highest numbers in the world, after the United States. (AFP)