COVID-19: Argentine leader Alberto Fernandez tests positive

Buenos Aires: Argentine President Alberto Fernandez has tested positive for the new coronavirus, is waiting for the result to be confirmed and is in good spirits despite having a light fever, the first-term Peronist leader tweeted on Saturday.

“I am in good physical condition,” the president, who turned 62 on Friday, said in a tweet. He had received Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus early this year.

“I would have liked to end my birthday without this news, but I am in good spirits,” Fernandez tweeted.

In isolation

He is in isolation, under COVID-19 protocols, but remains on the job. Argentina’s vice president is the country’s former leader Cristina Fernandez, no relation to the president.

The South American country has been on a lockdown of varying degrees for more than a year against the pandemic. COVID-19 has killed more than 56,000 Argentines so far.

Some 682,868 Argentines have been fully vaccinated, with older people and health car workers getting priority, the government says.