French President Emmanuel Macron tests positive for COVID-19

It said he would isolate himself for seven days. “He will continue to work and take care of his activities at a distance,” it added.

It was not immediately clear what contact tracing efforts were in progress. Macron attended a European Union summit at the end of last week, where he notably had a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He met on Wednesday with the prime minister of Portugal. There was no immediate comment from Portuguese officials.

Macron on Wednesday also held the government’s weekly cabinet meeting in the presence of Prime Minister Jean Castex and other ministers. Castex’s office said that the prime minister is also self-isolating for seven days.

Political party chiefs from the Senate and France’s lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, were also in isolation as they had a lunch with Macron earlier this week.

The French presidency confirmed that Macron’s trip to Lebanon scheduled for next week is being cancelled.

Macron is the latest world leader to test positive for COVID-19, joining a growing list of others just as inoculation drives against the illness are beginning in a number of countries.

U.S President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, are among the world leaders and prominent politicians who have contracted the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.