Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Sunday he had tested positive for COVID-19 and that the symptoms were mild.
Mexico’s president, who has been criticized for dealing with the country’s pandemic and for not setting an example of prevention in public, said on his official Twitter account that he is under medical treatment.
“I regret informing you that I am infected with COVID-19,” he tweeted. “The symptoms are mild, but I am already under medical treatment. As always, I am optimistic. We will all move forward.”
MEXICO MAKES OFFER TO SET THE IMMIGRATION STATUS OF MEXICAN NATIONALS
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will hold his daily news conference on December 18, 2020 in the Presidential Palace, Palacio Nacional, in Mexico City. (AP Photo / Marco Ugarte, File)
José Luis Alomía Zegarra, director of epidemiology in Mexico, said López Obrador had a ‘mild’ case of COVID-19 and was ‘home isolating’.
The president of Mexico wrote that Interior Minister Olga Sánchez Cordero would take over for him in his daily news conferences, while he usually speaks for two hours without interruptions every weekday.
López Obrador, 67, rarely saw him wearing a mask and continued to keep a busy itinerary with commercial flights.
He also resisted the barrier to the economy, noting the devastating effect it will have on so many Mexicans living daily, despite the fact that the country has registered nearly 150,000 COVID-19 deaths and more than 1.7 million infections. . Last week, the country registered its highest levels of infections and deaths to date.
Early in the pandemic, when asked how he protects Mexico, López Obrador pulls two religious amulets out of his wallet and proudly displays them.
“The protective shield is the ‘Get behind me, Satan,'” López Obrador said, reading the inscription on the amulet: “Stop, enemy, for the heart of Jesus is with me.
In November, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, called on Mexico’s leaders to take the coronavirus seriously and set an example to its citizens, saying ‘Mexico is bad’ with the pandemic.
He did not name López Obrador, but said: “We want to ask Mexico to be very serious.”
MEXICO SEES TOURISM BUMP AS PANDEMIC SURVEY
“We have said it in general: wearing a mask is important, hygiene is important and physical distance is important and we expect leaders to be role models,” he added.
At the start of the pandemic, López Obrador was criticized for still leaning in crowds and giving hugs. The political style of the eternal campaigner, López Obrador, has always been very practical and personal. As the pandemic escalated, he began limiting the attendance of his events and maintaining his distance from supporters.
But on Friday, López Obrador posted a photo of him, Secretary of State Marcelo Ebrard, a translator, and former chief of staff Alfonso Romo, who had all gathered around a table for a call with U.S. President Joe Biden. No one wore masks; the foreign relations department did not answer questions about whether Ebrard had been tested.
Despite his age and high blood pressure, as well as surgery after a heart attack, López Obrador said he was not going to get the chance to be vaccinated. But he is tested for the coronavirus once a week.
At his age and with his current health conditions, López Obrador’s turn for a vaccine could be weeks away, as the country is still working to vaccinate health workers in the front line.
As of Sunday night, Mexico had given nearly 630,000 doses of vaccine.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
López Obrador’s announcement came shortly after news broke that he would talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday about obtaining doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.