German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas quarantined himself on Wednesday after one of his security staff tested positive for coronavirus, a ministry spokeswoman said.

Maas returned a negative result in a preliminary test carried out on Wednesday, she said in a statement.

“The foreign ministry is working with public health authorities to determine whether further people are affected and other measures are necessary,” she said, adding that anyone who might have been exposed would be contacted.

Maas was in Brussels on Monday meeting his EU counterparts as well as Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

Chancellor Angela Merkel in March put herself in quarantine after seeing a doctor who tested positive for the coronavirus but all of her subsequent tests came back negative.

Germany has not suffered the kind of impact from the pandemic seen in many other European countries but its infection numbers are rising.

On Wednesday, it recorded 1,769 cases, bringing the total so far to 275,927.

The number of deaths rose by 13 at 9,409, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.

AFP