Sat 05 February 2022:
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and first lady Emine Erdoğan tested COVID-19 positive with mild symptoms, the president’s official personal Twitter account announced Saturday.
Erdoğan was due to attend an inauguration ceremony in northern Turkey’s Zonguldak on Saturday, but instead, he attended it via videoconference earlier in the day.
During his address to officials and a crowd in the city, Erdoğan said that he had to cancel his visit over cold and problems with hoarseness. Soon after, it was announced that the couple has contracted the omicron variant.
“We are on duty. We will continue our work from home. We ask for your prayers,” the Twitter message read.
The Turkish president received his third vaccine dose in June last year, whereas in January, he received his first dose publicly to encourage a nationwide vaccination campaign. He will turn 68 later in February.
President Erdoğan will rest at his residence in Istanbul for a week before he is administered a second test, an advisor told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) by phone. In the meantime, he will join events via videoconference if he has to, the advisor added.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and other politicians wished Erdoğan and his wife well on Twitter.
Since the beginning of the week, Erdoğan had a busy schedule, including attending a teachers’ assignment meeting, a Cabinet meeting and another meeting with a delegation of businesspeople in the capital Ankara.
Erdoğan had met with the Lebanese delegation led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday and visited Ukraine along with Ms. Erdoğan, cabinet members and journalists for a two-day official visit.
During his time in Kyiv, the president met with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other leading government officials.
Erdoğan then attended Friday prayers at a mosque in Istanbul’s Kadıköy district and was due to travel to Zonguldak on Saturday.
In a press conference before departing for Ukraine, Erdoğan was visibly looking tired and speaking with a hoarse voice and sneezing while delivering his remarks.
Turkey has recorded around 12 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 90,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic. The country requires people to isolate for seven days if they test positive. However if they test negative on the fifth day, they can leave quarantine.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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