Angela Merkel’s first coronavirus test comes back negative after she went into quarantine because a doctor who gave her a vaccination tested positive
- Angela Merkel went into quarantine yesterday after the contact on Friday
- Spokesman says she has been tested and is still healthy but working from home
- The doctor had visited Merkel to vaccinate her against pneumococcus bacteria
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
Angela Merkel’s first coronavirus test has come back negative after she went into quarantine because a doctor who gave her a vaccination tested positive.
The German chancellor went into quarantine yesterday but Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz said today that she is healthy but working from home.
The doctor had visited Merkel, 65, on Friday to vaccinate her against the pneumococcus bacteria.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured yesterday, before going into quarantine) has been tested for coronavirus with the results coming back clear
Pictured: The almost empty motorway A40 at rush hour in Essen, Germany, today amid more severe restrictions on public life
Her spokesman Steffen Siebert said on Sunday: ‘The Chancellor has decided to quarantine herself at home.
‘She will be tested regularly in the coming days… (and) fulfil her official business from home.’
It came just hours after she banned gatherings of more than two people in a nationwide crackdown to stop the spread of the killer disease.
The German chancellor also further tightened rules on social interaction, with restaurants ordered to only offer takeaway services and hairdressers and beauty, massage and tattoo parlours asked to close.
Pictured: Police tape closes the Old Water Tower Square due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, in Mannheim, Germany, on Sunday
Merkel last week announced gatherings in churches, mosques and synagogues would be banned and said playgrounds and non-essential shops would close amid growing numbers of coronavirus cases.
Germany’s public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute, also warned on Tuesday that the coronavirus crisis could last up to two years.
The latest official figures show 22,762 coronavirus cases in Germany and 86 deaths – a death rate of just 0.4 per cent, or one in every 265 patients.