PANDEMIC

World leaders who got the virus

A growing number of world leaders and politicians have been infected by Covid-19

U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, shown at the White House in Washington, D.C., last year, are now among the world leaders who have tested positive for the coronavirus. Agencies

H. J. I./AFP

A growing number of world leaders and politicians -- most recently French President Emmanuel Macron and Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic -- have been infected by Covid-19, not least Donald Trump.

Here is a roundup.

Leaders infected

Matovic said Friday he had tested positive for Covid-19, a week after he attended an EU summit in Brussels.

Macron on Thursday also announced he was positive for coronavirus after having attended the same summit.

The French leader is working in isolation for the next week in an official residence outside Paris, officials said. He said he was "doing well" though he admitted his activity had slowed down because of the symptoms.

Before him, US President Trump said he had come down with it on October 2, as had his wife Melania. After a stay in a military hospital, he went back on the campaign trial, saying he was now "immune" and therefore in no pressing need of a vaccine.

On July 7, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro -- who had dismissed the virus as a "little flu" -- said he had tested positive.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, 56, spent a week in hospital in April -- including three days in intensive care -- after falling ill. After two weeks' convalescence, he went back to work.

Other politicians

In early September the former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi tested positive after returning from a holiday at his luxury villa in Sardinia.

Russia's Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was diagnosed with coronavirus in late April, returning to his duties three weeks later.

Britain's Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, and Prince Albert II of Monaco, both tested positive in March with mild symptoms.

Dead

Few top-rank politicians died of the virus until this month, with former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing dying on December 2 aged 94.

Then on Sunday, Ambrose Dlamini, 52, the prime minister of the southern African kingdom of Eswatini -- previously called Swaziland -- became the first sitting leader to die.

He was followed on Wednesday by ex-Swiss president Flavio Cotti, 81, and Burundi's former head of state Pierre Buyoya on Friday.

The 71-year-old had resigning only weeks ago as the African Union's special envoy to strife-torn Mali and the Sahel.