RIO DE JANEIRO, May 7, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who was hospitalized for a bacterial skin infection while campaigning in the state of Amazonas over the weekend, was transferred to Sao Paulo Monday, his lawyer said.

Fabio Wajngarten, who also acts as Bolsonaro's spokesman, said on social media that the 69-year-old "was admitted to the Vila Nova Star de Sao Paulo hospital with erysipelas in the left leg and abdominal pain."

"He will undergo laboratory tests and imaging. He is already receiving IV antibiotics," Wajngarten said.

Earlier, the former president's son Eduardo, a lawmaker, said on social media that his father was "doing well, reacting well to antibiotics." He had said Bolsonaro was to be taken to the capital Brasilia.

Wajngarten did not offer an explanation for the change in venue.

A post on X featured a picture of the right-wing former president, who was in office from 2019 to 2022, laying down in a hospital gown with sheets partially covering him. The skin on his left shin is severely reddened.

On Sunday, Bolsonaro announced that he had been hospitalized in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, for erysipelas, a bacterial skin infection that can cause pain and fever.

Bolsonaro had been in Manaus, the biggest city in Brazil's Amazon region, to campaign for Alberto Neto, the Liberal Party candidate for the October mayoral election.

Santa Julia hospital confirmed Bolsonaro had been admitted on Saturday.

Bolsonaro suffered from a similar infection in November 2022, shortly after his election loss to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. At the time, he remained for several days at his residence in Brasilia.

He has been hospitalized several times in recent years -- most recently in September -- and has also undergone multiple surgeries, including at the private Vila Nova Star clinic, after being stabbed in the abdomen during the 2018 presidential campaign.