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Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Hendrik Wüst during his visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem
Photo: Ralph Sondermann / dpa
A corona finding messed up the plans for the visit of North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) to Israel.
The head of government tested positive for the corona virus during his trip to the country.
SPIEGEL learned this from circles of the travel delegation.
A bodyguard for the politician had previously tested positive.
Wüst went on his first major trip abroad as Prime Minister on Sunday.
On Monday morning he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.
After two PCR tests - one before and one immediately after entering Israel - were negative, Wüst received the message in the afternoon that another PCR test had a positive result.
In the meantime, the accompanying person from the personal protection command has also received the message that they have been tested positive for the PCR for the second time.
First trip abroad for Wüst
For reasons of caution, Wüst will not attend the other appointments in Israel on Monday, at least until the result of another PCR test is available, the delegation said.
As soon as this is available, we will be actively informed about the further procedure.
State Secretary Mark Speich Wüst will be “represented at least for the appointments on Monday”.
Optional testing facilities in Tel Aviv would also be provided for the entire delegation, also for reasons of caution.
Wüst may now have to go into isolation in Israel.
The federal and state government round on the corona pandemic will take place on Thursday, Wüst is currently chairman of the Prime Ministers' Conference.
As a precaution, the round was planned as a digital conference.
Wüst is not the only top politician who is currently corona positive.
Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) also announced via Twitter that Corona had “got me too”.
She has mild symptoms and will remain in isolation for the next few days.
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