Australia PM Anthony Albanese is due to make a two-day trip to Papua New Guinea in Dec.
Australia PM Anthony Albanese said he had tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday afternoon and would work from home while isolating himself.
In October, Australia ended mandatory home quarantine for COVID-infected people.
“I encourage anyone who is unwell to test and to take any extra precautions to keep their families and neighbors well,” Albanese said in a statement.
This afternoon I had a routine PCR test which has returned a positive result for COVID-19.
I will be isolating and will continue to work from home.
I encourage anyone who is unwell to test and to take any extra precautions to keep their families and neighbours well.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) December 5, 2022
Albanese is due to make a two-day trip to Papua New Guinea on Dec. 12-13.
It is the second COVID infection for Albanese, who was sidelined for some of the federal election campaigns earlier this year after a positive test. Albanese’s Labor Party won power at the election.
This comes as WHO estimates that at least 90 percent of the World’s population now has some level of immunity to SARS-CoV-2, Due to prior infection or vaccination.
Last week WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said the number of weekly deaths reported to WHO has declined slightly over the past five weeks, but more than 8,500 people lost their lives last week.
According to the WHO chief, the world is much closer to being able to say that the emergency phase is over – but we’re not there yet.
“Gaps in testing, sequencing, and vaccination are continuing to create the perfect conditions for a new variant of concern to emerge that could cause significant mortality,” he said.