French President Emmanuel Macron tested positive for COVID-19, his office said in statement yesterday.
Macron was tested after showing mild symptoms of the disease, and would isolate for seven days and continue to work, the statement said.
An official at the Elysee Palace declined to provide details on the circumstances of the infection or where the president would be isolating.
Photo: Reuters
The diagnosis comes at a particularly sensitive time for Macron. France is struggling to tame the pandemic, with the president fielding unrelenting criticism of his handling of the crisis and the economic fallout.
Macron is the third leader of a G7 nation to contract COVID-19, after US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Also yesterday, the WHO told a news conference that Beijing would welcome an international team of COVID-19 investigators led by the global health organization that is scheduled to visit China next month.
China has strongly opposed calls for an international inquiry into the origins of COVID-19, saying that such calls are anti-China, but has been open to a WHO-led investigation.
“The WHO continues to contact China, and to discuss the international team and the places they visit,” said Babatunde Olowokure, the WHO’s regional emergencies director in the Western Pacific. “Our understanding at this time is that China is welcoming the international team and their visit... This is anticipated, as far as we are aware, to happen in early January.”
A team of 12 to 15 international experts is preparing to go to Wuhan to examine evidence, including human and animal samples collected by Chinese researchers.
Thea Fischer, a Danish member, said the team would leave “just after New Year’s” for a six-week mission, including a two-week quarantine upon arrival.
A similar, but not identical virus was identified in a horseshoe bat, indicating that it was transmitted first to an animal, or intermediate host, before infecting humans, Keith Hamilton, an expert at the World Organization for Animal Health who is to take part, told reporters on Tuesday.
“When we are doing animal surveillance, it’s difficult. It’s rather like looking for a needle in a haystack,” he said.
Some Western countries have voiced concern at the delay in sending international experts.
One senior Western diplomat complained of a lack of transparency while experts were not on the ground talking to clinicians and researchers or inspecting lab samples.
However, another Western diplomat said that the mission was on a “good footing” and that the WHO had to accept China’s terms to secure access.
Additional reporting by Reuters
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS