French president Emmanuel Macron
It was not immediately clear where French President
Macron contracted the coronavirus. But one possibility could be during marathon talks last Thursday and Friday at a European Union summit over the bloc’s budget and climate targets. If that’s the case, it would be a worst-case scenario for the summit organizers.
Sufficient safety measures?
Since the onset of the pandemic, European Council staff has done its utmost to reduce the risk of heads of state and government contracting or spreading the coronavirus. Masks are mandatory, social distancing is enforced and delegations have been reduced to an absolute minimum. Decision-makers are now limited to five advisers. Handshaking has been substituted with touching elbows, bowing and other greetings.
December 18, 2020
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PARIS (Reuters) -President Emmanuel Macron tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, prompting a track-and-trace effort across Europe following numerous meetings between the French leader and EU heads of government in recent days.
Macron, who will turn 43 on Monday, is running France remotely and has gone into quarantine at the presidential retreat of La Lanterne close to the Palace of Versailles, the presidency said.
A presidential official described Macron as tired and having a cough. His wife Brigitte tested negative but was also self-isolating, staying at the Elysee palace in central Paris.
In the early evening, Macron spoke to a conference on French foreign aid policy via video link. Dressed in a roll-neck sweater and suit jacket, the president sat behind a desk and wore a facemask, showing no visible sign of the illness.
Brussels: A host of European leaders were self-quaranting after coming in contact with French President Emmanuel Macron who has tested positive for the coronavirus.
In a statement on Thursday, the Elysee Palace confirmed the 42-year-old President’s positive result, saying that he “will isolate himself for seven days” but “will continue to work and carry out his activities remotely”, Xinhua news agency reported.
Macron attended a European Union (EU) summit in Brussels last week and an event organised by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris on Monday.
Following his diagnosis, several other European leaders also rushed into isolation.
Abela not among European leaders required to quarantine after French president gets COVID-19
French President Emanuel Macron has tested positive for coronavirus and sent several other European leaders into preventive quarantine but Malta’s Prime Minister is not one of them
18 December 2020, 1:18pm
by Kurt Sansone
Malta’s Prime Minister does not need to quarantine despite being at a Brussels summit with French President Emanuel Macron, who has tested positive for COVID-19.
Robert Abela was not identified as one of Macron’s contacts in the 48 hours before he tested positive, a government spokesperson told MaltaToday.
Several European leaders, including Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and European Council President Charles Michel, have gone into preventive quarantine after Macron tested positive for coronavirus on 17 December.
Friday, 18 Dec 2020 07:28 AM MYT
French President Emmanuel Macron, tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), is seen on a TV screen as he attends by video conference a roundtable for the National Humanitarian Conference (NHC) at the Foreign Ministry in Paris, France, December 17, 2020. Reuters pic
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PARIS, Dec 18 A host of European leaders and top French officials rushed into isolation yesterday after President Emmanuel Macron tested positive for Covid-19, upending political agendas across the continent.
A flurry of contact-tracing followed France’s confirmation that Macron had become the latest world leader to contract Covid-19, following the likes of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Donald Trump.