Brazil's Health Minister tests positive for COVID-19 in New York

Marcelo Queiroga was the second member of the Brazilian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, to have tested positive to the virus

September 22, 2021 08:38 am | Updated 06:55 pm IST - BRASILIA

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro (3rd from left) eats pizza with Caixa Economica Federal Bank President Pedro Guimaraes, General Luiz Eduardo Ramos, Tourism Minister Gilson Machado Neto, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga (with mask) and other politicians on a street ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, U.S. September 19, 2021.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro (3rd from left) eats pizza with Caixa Economica Federal Bank President Pedro Guimaraes, General Luiz Eduardo Ramos, Tourism Minister Gilson Machado Neto, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga (with mask) and other politicians on a street ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, U.S. September 19, 2021.

Brazil's Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga tested positive for COVID-19 hours after accompanying President Jair Bolsonaro to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, September 21,2021, the government said.

Mr. Queiroga will remain in New York in quarantine, the government's communications office said.

Also read: Brazilian President invokes Ramayana while seeking hydroxychloroquine from India

"The Minister is doing well," the statement said. It added that the rest of the delegation tested negative for the virus.

Mr. Queiroga told CNN Brasil that he had worn a mask the entire time that he was in the U.N. building.

Mr. Bolsonaro, a vaccine skeptic , defied U.N. rules that asked all those attending the assembly to be vaccinated. He has bragged about not getting vaccinated.

In his speech to world leaders at a meeting where the global coronavirus pandemic was top of the agenda, Mr. Bolsonaro said his government did not support the use of a vaccine passport and stood by treatment of the virus with unproven drugs such as the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine .

He said Brazil's vaccination campaign against COVID-19 had been successful and that all adults who wanted a vaccine would be fully inoculated by November.

With unvaccinated diners barred from eating in New York restaurants, Mr. Bolsonaro and his entourage ate pizza on a sidewalk on their first night in the city on Sunday.

The Health Minister was the second member of the Brazilian delegation in New York to have tested positive. A young diplomat who was part of an advance team preparing Bolsonaro's visit tested positive on the weekend and was isolated.

COVID-19 has killed 591,440 Brazilians in the world's second-deadliest outbreak after the United States.

As vaccination advances in the country, the rolling 14-day average of COVID deaths has fallen to 519 a day, compared with almost 3,000 at the peak of the pandemic in April.

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