BRAZILIAN President Jair Bolsonaro said Monday he had undergone another test for the novel coronavirus and his lungs were “clean,” after local media reported he had symptoms associated with the COVID-19 respiratory disease.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly played down the impact of the virus, even as Brazil has suffered one of the world’s worst outbreaks, with more than 1.6 million confirmed cases and 65,000 related deaths, according to official data Monday.

CNN Brasil and newspaper Estado de S.Paulo reported that he had symptoms of the disease, such as a fever.

Bolsonaro told supporters outside the presidential palace that he had just visited the hospital and had been tested.

“I can’t get very close,” he said in comments recorded by Foco do Brasil, a pro-government YouTube channel. “I came from the hospital. I underwent a lung scan. The lung’s clean.”

The president’s office said in a statement that the president is at his home and is “in good health.”

The right-wing populist has often defied local guidelines to wear a mask in public, even after a judge ordered him to do so in late June.

Over the weekend, Bolsonaro attended several events and was in close contact with the U.S. ambassador to Brazil during Fourth of July celebrations. (SD-Agencies)