Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday after experiencing mild symptoms, a Japanese government chief of staff official told AFP in Tokyo.
Fumio Kishida, 65, was originally scheduled to travel to Tunisia at the end of next week to attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad). According to Japanese media, he will now be able to attend via teleconference.
The prime minister has been on vacation for the past few days, shortly after receiving a fourth dose of the vaccine, and was initially scheduled to return to work on Monday.
He underwent a PCR test on Sunday morning, after experiencing “a little fever and cough” since Saturday night, and the test came back positive, according to a member of the prime minister’s cabinet interviewed by AFP.
In addition to his trip to Tunisia for Ticad, an international forum Japan has organized since 1993 to promote development aid and investment in Africa, Fumio Kishida was also scheduled to visit several Gulf countries at the end of August, Japanese media reported.
Japan has been experiencing a record wave of Covid-19 since July, with an average of more than 200,000 new cases a day in the country for the past seven days. The number of coronavirus-related deaths in the archipelago (36,780 since the start of the pandemic) remains relatively low compared to many other countries.
Strict lockdowns have never been imposed in Japan, and the government did not reimpose restrictions on bars and restaurants this time, which were lifted in March. The archipelago’s borders have been partially reopened in recent months, but foreign tourists remain prohibited, except for highly restricted package tours.
Source: Observadora
