Donald Trump and VP Mike Pence posed with Brazilian officials including communications director Fabio Wajngarten, right, who has tested positive for coronavirus. Photo / Instagram
Donald Trump and VP Mike Pence posed with Brazilian officials including communications director Fabio Wajngarten, right, who has tested positive for coronavirus. Photo / Instagram
A Brazilian government official who met with Donald Trump at his resort in Florida and posted a photo of himself standing next to the US president has tested positive for coronavirus days later.
Communications Secretary Fabio Wajngarten, who was confirmed on Thursday to have contracted Covid-19, was among a delegation of Brazilian government officials who dined with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday.
Wajngarten reportedly came down with flu-like symptoms after returning to Brazil and was taken to a military hospital to be tested for the virus.
Donald Trump and VP Mike Pence posed with Brazilian officials including communications director Fabio Wajngarten, right, who has tested positive for coronavirus. Photo / Instagram
According to Brazilian media outlets, several senior officials who were in the delegation with Mr Wajngarten - including Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro - are being monitored for symptoms.
The Brazilian president's office "has taken and is taking all necessary preventive measures to protect the health of the president and all staff that traveled with him to the United States," it said in a statement.
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, left, and Communications Director Fabio Wajngarten, second from left, at an event in Florida on March 7. Wajngarten has tested positive for coronavirus. Photo / AP
"This is because one of the officials in the group, Presidential Communications Secretary Fabio Wajngarten, is infected with the new coronavirus, Covid-19, as confirmed by a second test that was recently carried out."
Trump said he was "not concerned" about his direct encounter with Wajngarten. He is not being tested and brushed off the risk.
🇧🇷🤝🇺🇸 President @JairBolsonaro will arrive in the U.S. tomorrow for a visit to the state of Florida, where he'll meet with President @realDonaldTrump. Brazil is the leading foreign investor in Florida.
— Embassy of Brazil in the USA 🇧🇷 (@BrazilinUSA) March 6, 2020
Wajngarten joined Bolsonaro - who has been dubbed a "Tropical Trump" - on a three-day trip to the US and on Saturday was at the Mar-a-Lago resort, where he posted a photo of himself wearing a "Make Brazil Great Again" cap while posing beside Trump, who was holding a similar hat. A video from the event also showed him standing directly behind both presidents as they addressed a crowd.
US President Donald Trump shakes hands before a dinner with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on March 7. Bolsonaro's communications director has coronavirus. Photo / AP
Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, both presidential aides were also at the dinner on Saturday. The following day Bolsonaro and his delegation visited the headquarters of the US military's Southern Command in Doral, also in the sunshine state, where the Brazilian president met with the commander, Admiral Craig Faller, the New York Times reports.
Wajngarten initially denied a report on Wednesday that he had been tested for the virus, saying on his social media account that his health was fine. He is now in self-quarantine at home, according to the Brazilian government.
