German Chancellor Angela Merkel went into quarantine on Sunday after coming into contact with a coronavirus-infected doctor shortly after announcing more curbs on social interaction to slow the spread of the disease.
Merkel, 65, will continue her work from home and will submit to repeated tests over the next few days, her spokesman said in a statement, adding it was too soon for a conclusive test yet.
Merkel had on Friday afternoon received a vaccine shot against pneumococcus, a pneumonia-causing bacteria, from a doctor who later tested positive for the coronavirus, which causes the Covid-19 disease, according to the statement.
Her spokesman said yesterday that Merkel is “doing well” in self-imposed quarantine and awaiting the results of her coronavirus test.
“The chancellor is doing well,” her spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters.
Dialling in from her Berlin flat, Merkel, 65, led a cabinet meeting that decided on a major rescue package for virus-stricken companies and employees in Europe’s top economy.
“She was tested today and now we are waiting for the results, and we’ll see what comes out of that,” Seibert said, adding that any next steps would be guided by advice from doctors and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) disease control agency.
Seibert thanked everyone on Merkel’s behalf for “the many, many well wishes and messages for the chancellor to stay healthy”.
The spokesman declined to say whether Merkel’s chemistry professor husband Joachim Sauer was quarantining with her, saying that he would not share information about family members.
Asked if he himself, as a close Merkel staffer, should self-isolate, Seibert said that he last met with the chancellor on Sunday afternoon, but had stuck to the advice of keeping a safe physical distance from people.
Last year, Merkel suffered several bouts of shaking at public events, sparking speculation about her health.
“I am aware of the responsibility of my office,” she told reporters last July after the tremor episodes. “I behave appropriately as far as my health is concerned ... I look after my health.”
Merkel has said she will not seek a fifth term as chancellor in federal elections due by October 2021.
The chancellor has loomed large on the European stage since 2005, helping guide the European Union through the eurozone crisis and opening Germany’s doors to migrants fleeing war in the Middle East in 2015, a move that still divides the bloc and her country.
German Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz sits next to Merkel’s empty chair as she participates in the weekly cabinet meeting by video conference at the Chancellery in Berlin.
