VILNIUS (Reuters) – Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Linas Linkevicius will self-isolate for a week after contact with members of visiting French President Emmanuel Macron’s delegation who later tested positive for the coronavirus.
The minister was present at several events during the Sept. 28-29 visit, spokeswoman Rasa Jakilaitiene said. The minister took a coronavirus test that came back negative on Monday afternoon.
The two members of the French delegation who tested positive were resident in Vilnius and not part of the travelling delegation from Paris, who had all tested negative before landing in Lithuania, Macron’s office said.
“All social distancing rules have been respected. The president is not a contact case,” an official at Macron’s office told Reuters, adding that neither were the ministers travelling with Macron.
A total of 26 people were found to have been in close contact with the infected members of the delegation after their tests came back positive early on Saturday, Rolanda Lingiene from the Lithuanian National State Health Centre told reporters.
Neither the French president nor his wife are among them, she said: “They had the protective gear and were at a distance”.
All of the 26 have been tested, with most results expected late on Monday, and told to self-isolate until end of this week.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, his wife and several members of his office took coronavirus tests on Sunday. All the results were negative, the president’s office said in a statement.
On Sunday, three members of the president’s office were asked to self-isolate due to having had close contact with the French delegation. The president and his family are not among them, his office said.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius and Michel Rose in Paris; Editing by Alison Williams and Hugh Lawson)
