EU Brexit negotiator tests positive for coronavirus

By Busra Nur Bilgic Cakmak

ANKARA (AA) - The EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier announced Thursday that he tested positive for the new coronavirus.

“I would like to inform you that I have tested positive for #COVID19. I am doing well and in good spirits. I am following all the necessary instructions, as is my team,” Barnier said on Twitter.

“For all those affected already, and for all those currently in isolation, we will get through this together,” he added.

Separately, Cem Ozdemir, a member of the German Green Party, announced that he also caught the virus.

“I am fine and nobody should worry about me. Keep staying at home and follow the authorities’ instructions,” the German politician of Turkish origin said on his Instagram account.

The novel coronavirus has claimed nearly 9,000 lives globally, mostly in China, according to global data compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. More than 219,000 cases of the virus have been confirmed in at least 159 countries and territories so far.

The World Health Organization declared Europe as the new epicenter of the pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, China last December.