Ryan Nicol
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has tested positive for the new coronavirus after making contact with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro press secretary, Fabio Wajngarten.
Wajngarten also appeared alongside President Donald Trump at a weekend event at Mar-a-Lago.
Suarez relayed the results to the Miami Herald Friday morning.
“It is confirmed that I have the coronavirus,” Suarez said. “I did test positive for it.”
The news comes as Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez announced he had tested negative for the COVID-19 virus. Both Giménez and Suarez appeared alongside Wajngarten at a reception Monday.
Thursday, reports showed Wajngarten tested positive for the virus. Friday morning, it was reported that President Bolsonaro tested positive for the virus as well. But later reports showed Bolsanaro denied the news and said he had tested negative for the virus.
Despite the negative test for Giménez, the Mayor and current Republican candidate in Florida’s 26th Congressional District will remain self-isolating for 14 days.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott also announced he would be self-isolating after coming into contact with Wajngarten.
But the White House said there were no plans to test Trump or Vice President Mike Pence, who both also interacted with the Brazilian delegation.
Suarez attended a Miami Commission meeting Thursday prior to the positive test.
Before his decision to self-isolate Thursday, Giménez appeared alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis at a news conference in Miami-Dade County at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Both Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami have declared a state of emergency.
The death rate for those who test positive for the virus has recently sat above 3%. However, those calculations do not include individuals who may have contracted the virus, but are asymptomatic and thus survive without incident. Including those individuals would lower the death rate, but it’s unclear how many such individuals there are worldwide.
Most who do show symptoms develop a fever or cough and may have trouble breathing, though they do recover. However, older individuals and those with underlying health risks are susceptible to developing more severe symptoms.
Two people in Florida have died after testing positive for the virus. Overall, 35 people have now been diagnosed with the coronavirus in Florida. Three of those cases are nonresidents.
Another five Floridians have been returned to the U.S. after testing positive overseas.
