BRASILIA – The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was recovering yesterday from bacterial and viral tracheitis caused by influenza type A that forced him to cancel his visit to China and will likely resume his activities tomorrow, his doctor said.
His Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, wished a speedy recovery yesterday and made it clear that the Brazilian president’s trip will be rescheduled. According to Lula’s personal physician, Roberto Khalil, the president should resume his activities in Brasilia from tomorrow.
Khalil also stressed that canceling the trip was a choice of the Brazilian head of state himself, given the sensitivity of the disease and the possibility of having to face a long flight of at least 30 hours to China, according to the UOL portal.
“I wish the president a speedy recovery, and invite him to visit China at the earliest mutually convenient time,” Xi said, meanwhile, in a statement broadcast by Chinese state television CGTN.
Yesterday, Lula, 77, canceled his state visit to China, which was due to begin today, due to pneumonia.
Sputnik news agency quoted the president as being transferred to a hospital with flu-like symptoms, and his condition was diagnosed on Thursday with “bacterial and viral bronchitis due to influenza A.”
After yesterday’s reassessment, the president’s health has improved.
Lula had postponed the departure until today due to illness, but since she was not sufficiently developed, the doctors preferred to cancel the visit to Brazil’s main trading partner.
Since returning to the presidency, the PT leader has traveled to Argentina, Uruguay and the United States.
The country’s tour to the Asian giant had an ambitious agenda with 240 businessmen in the delegation and more than 40 parliamentarians, as well as the official presentation of former President Dilma Rousseff as head of the BRICS Bank (the bloc made up of Brazil, India, China and South Africa), the Shanghai-based New Development Bank.
There is a ministerial advance for China’s government and businessmen to participate in the seminars, which served as a business boost to the official agenda that included the summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday.
