Slovak Prime Minister Tests Positive For COVID-19

Slovak Prime Minister Tests Positive For COVID-19 After Attending Summit.

Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic has revealed that he has tested positive for Covid-19, just one week after he attended an EU summit in Brussels. The summit is where it is believed that French President Emmanuel Macron caught the virus. This has led to a host of European leaders and top French officials to go into self-isolation.

Matovic posted the news on his Facebook page, attaching a screenshot of a text message with his test results. “Today, I am one of you. I was to spend the Christmas holidays helping out at a hospital. Now my plans will likely be a little different,” the 47-year-old premier added.

The government’s press department announced to the world that Matovic had tested positive on Thursday and had since cancelled all his events. Slovak local media reported that the government had called on all ministers and state secretaries to get tested in response. Deputy Prime Minister Veronika Remisova and Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad later announced that they were also infected.

Macron and Matovic are the latest heads of state and government around the world to contract the coronavirus, following the likes of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Donald Trump. Since the pandemic erupted, Slovakia has registered more than 146,000 confirmed infections, including nearly 4,000 new cases on Thursday.

More than 1,400 people have died from the virus in the country of 5.4 million people, including 62 people on Thursday. New anti-virus measures are due to go into effect in Slovakia on Saturday, Dec. 19, including the requirement for non-essential shops to close at 5 pm (1600 GMT). The whole Slovakian population has also been asked to stay home.

On Friday, the health ministry announced Slovakia will get its first vaccines on December 26 and vaccinations should begin that day or within the following 24 hours.

Thank you for taking the time to read this news article “Slovak Prime Minister Tests Positive For COVID-19”. For more UK daily news, Spanish daily news and Global news stories, visit the Euro Weekly News home page.