Spanish PM, EU Council President to self-isolate after Macron tests positive for COVID-19
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and EU Council President Charles Michel have gone into self-isolation after coming in contact with French President Emmanuel Macron, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Thursday.
The 42-year-old president took a test “as soon as the first symptoms appeared” and will now go into self-isolation for a week, a statement by Elysee Palace reads. Macron met with his Spanish counterpart on Monday at an event in Paris for the 60th anniversary of the signing of the OECD convention.
An announcement issued by La Moncloa, the seat of the Spanish government, reads that Sanchez will self-isolate until December 24 and depending on the results of his test, he will “decide about his agenda for the coming days.”
Similarly, France’s Prime Minister Jean Castex has already announced that he will self-isolate after being in contact with the president, and several other ministers may also have to self-isolate as contact cases, as well.
An announcement by the EU bloc’s spokesperson said that the French authorities informed Michel that “he is not considered to be a close contact,” however the EU Council President will go into self-isolation as a precautionary measure. The spokesperson added that Michel is tested “regularly” and he also produced a negative test on Tuesday, a day before a meeting of EU27 leaders in Brussels.
On the contrary, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen “has no plan” of self-isolating, the Commission’s spokesperson, Eric Mamer stated, as although she had met Macron earlier in the week, she was also informed that did not constitute a close contact that required self-isolation.
