The German health minister, Jens Spahn, has tested positive for coronavirus — the latest in a long line of global political figures to do so.
Jens Spahn, who is a member of the German parliament for Angela Merkel’s politically dominant, globalist centre-right Christian Democratic Union and health minister tested positive on Wednesday and has gone into self-isolation.
Germany’s Deutsche Welle reports that Spahn attended a government cabinet meeting earlier on Wednesday, but because the cabinet met “in compliance with hygiene and distance rules”, the rest of the government is not quarantining. The government no longer meets in its regular chambers but instead sits in a conference hall, meaning the full government can be in the same room without getting too close to one another.
Reuters reports Germany’s President — a largely ceremonial position, as political power lies in the hands of Chancellor Merkel — and the labour minister were already pre-emptively self-isolating after coming into contact with people who subsequently tested positive for the virus.
Spahn is just the latest in a succession of global leaders who have contracted coronavirus, politicians perhaps being more exposed to the virus by the essentially socialised nature of their work. Britain’s Boris Johnson was the first national leader to contract coronavirus, experiencing a brief stay in hospital before returning to his duties earlier this year.
He was followed by others including Brazillian president Jair Bolsonaro, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, and the United States’ President Trump.
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