New Zealand’s PM Tests Positive for COVID

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. EPA
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. EPA
TT

New Zealand’s PM Tests Positive for COVID

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. EPA
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. EPA

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tested positive for COVID-19 with moderate symptoms, her office said in a statement on Saturday.

She will not be in parliament for the government's emissions reduction plan on Monday and the budget on Thursday, but "travel arrangements for her trade mission to the United States are unaffected at this stage," the statement said.

Details of the trip are still to be confirmed, although she is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at Harvard University on May 26.

Ardern had been symptomatic since Friday evening, returning a weak positive at night and a clear positive on Saturday morning on a rapid antigen test, it said.

She has been in isolation since Sunday, when her partner Clarke Gayford tested positive, it said.

Due to the positive test, Ardern will be required to isolate until the morning of May 21, undertaking what duties she can remotely.

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson will address media in her place on Monday.

New Zealand enforced one of the world's most restrictive approaches to managing the initial COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, and its death toll of 892 remains among the lowest of developed nations.

However, it has experienced an Omicron surge since restrictions were loosened in March, with Ardern's positive case among more than 50,000 recorded over the last week.



NATO Boss Held Talks with Trump in Florida, Alliance Says

FILE PHOTO: New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attends a press conference, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attends a press conference, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
TT

NATO Boss Held Talks with Trump in Florida, Alliance Says

FILE PHOTO: New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attends a press conference, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attends a press conference, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met US President-elect Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday, a spokesperson for the transatlantic military alliance said on Saturday.
"They discussed the range of global security issues facing the Alliance," the spokesperson, Farah Dakhlallah, said in a brief statement.
On its website, NATO said Rutte and his team also met with Congressman Mike Waltz, Trump's pick to be his national security adviser when he returns to the White House, and other members of the president-elect's national security team.
On Friday, NATO did not respond to requests for comment on Dutch media reports that Rutte - a former prime minister of the Netherlands - had flown to Florida on a Dutch government plane to meet Trump.
Rutte, who took office as NATO chief last month, was widely regarded as one of the best European leaders at forging a good working relationship with Trump during his first, 2017-21 term as US president.