Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been tested for the novel coronavirus, Brazilian media reported on Thursday.

Less than a week ago, Bolsonaro sat next to President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Fabio Wajngarten, Bolsonaro's press secretary, has tested positive for the coronavirus. He was photographed standing next to Trump five days ago.

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was tested for the coronavirus and is being monitored, the Brazilian newspaper Estadão reported on Thursday, days after he sat next to US President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Bolsonaro's communications chief, Fabio Wajngarten, has tested positive for the virus, the Brazilian president's office confirmed to Insider.

Trump and Bolsonaro were photographed sitting next to each other less than a week ago

—The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 8, 2020

Trump was also photographed standing next to Wajngarten 5 days before Wajngarten tested positive for the virus

And Trump was photographed shaking Bolsonaro's hand before dinner on Saturday

Trump and Bolsonaro. Alex Brandon/AP

Bolsonaro's office in a statement provided to Insider said: "The Medical Service of the Office of the President has been adopting all necessary precautionary measures to protect the health of the President and of the presidential delegation who accompanied him on a recent trip to the United States, as well as the health of the workers in the Presidential Palace."

"These measures have been undertaken after one of the members of the delegation, the President's Secretary of Communications, Fábio Wajngarten, tested positive for the new coronavirus Covid-19, which has been confirmed by a retest," the statement added. It went on to say that Wajngarten is "following medical recommendations, under self-quarantine at home, and will not resume his duties until he is no longer at risk of transmitting the disease."

Bolsonaro's office also said that the Brazilian government had communicated the occurrence with the US so that necessary preventative measures could be taken.

The White House did not immediately respond to a requests for comment from Insider.

At the White House on Thursday, Trump said he "heard something about" Bolsonaro's communications chief having the novel coronavirus.

"We had dinner together in Florida, at Mar-a-Lago, with the entire delegation," Trump told the McClatchy reporter Francesca Chambers. "I don't know if the press aide was there, if he was there, he was there. But we did nothing very unusual."

The White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement that the White House was aware that a member of the Brazilian delegation had tested positive for the coronavirus.

"Exposures from the case are being assessed, which will dictate next steps," the statement said. "Both the President and Vice President had almost no interactions with the individual who tested positive and do not require being tested at this time."

Trump has not been tested for the coronavirus but recently signaled that he'd be open to it.

The president has been near several US lawmakers who have self-quarantined in recent days after interacting with a person with the virus at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland last month.

When asked by reporters on Tuesday why he hadn't been tested, Trump said he felt "extremely good."

It can take two to 14 days for coronavirus symptoms — like a fever, cough, and shortness of breath — to show up, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Like Trump, Bolsonaro has sought to downplay the threat of the novel coronavirus in recent days and accused the media of pushing a "fantasy."

"During the past year, obviously, we have had moments of crisis. A lot of that is fantasy. And coronavirus, which is not all the mainstream media makes it out to be," the Brazilian leader said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Trump on Monday tweeted: "The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant."

But Trump has not been able to outrun the facts about the coronavirus or the growing threat it poses in the US.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, and the US's top infectious-diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told House lawmakers that the outbreak is "going to get worse."

Trump on Wednesday evening gave an error-filled Oval Office address announcing new travel restrictions for Europe and seeking to downplay the US government's early stumbles in its response to the outbreak.