World leaders and COVID-19: Who has it and who's isolating?

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was the most high-profile world leader to announce positive for COVID-19 test late Tuesday, but he is far from the only one to be directly caught up in the global pandemic.

Here is a rundown of other top leaders, officials and cabinet ministers from around the world who have been directly affected by the virus.

The president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, said on Sunday he would self-isolate for 14 days after somebody in his close circle tested positive for the virus. The president himself tested negative but was taking the measure as a precaution, the government said in a statement. Other cabinet members have been less lucky: On Tuesday, it was announced that Information Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo's test results had come back positive. Last month, Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu was hospitalized after falling ill.

In a tweet on Monday, Pakistan's Heath Minister Zafar Mirza announced he had tested positive for COVID-19, had mild symptoms and was self-isolating at home. This came just days after Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he had the virus. Over the past few months, several other members of government have been diagnosed, including Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, IT and Telecommunications Minister Syed Aminul Haque and the speaker of the National Assembly, Asad Qaiser.

Tweet by Pakistan's Heath Minister Zafar Mirza. /CGTN screenshot

Halfway around the world, it was announced over the weekend that Bolivia's Health Minister Maria Eidy Roca had tested positive for COVID-19, and was taking precautions and isolating herself. This followed news that the country's Mining Minister Jorge Fernando Oropeza had also been diagnosed and that the minister of the presidency, Yerko Nunez, had been hospitalized with "complications" from the disease.

In the U.S., one of the most high-profile public figures to announce they had COVID-19 in recent days was Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who gained national attention last month amid anti-racism protests and who has been talked of as a possible running mate to Joe Biden in November's presidential election. "COVID-19 has literally hit home," Bottoms tweeted, adding however that she still had no symptoms.

Israel's Public Security Minister Amir Ohana said over the weekend that he would go into quarantine as a precaution, having been in contact with an infected person, although his own test results were negative.

Elsewhere, the new speaker of Suriname's National Assembly, Roonie Brunswijk, has also tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

On the way to recovery

Others, meanwhile, were slowly on the mend.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez left hospital last week, after he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and taken in for treatment in mid-June. Reports said at one point his condition was serious and he needed oxygen to COVID-19, politics, government, president, Ghana, Pakistan, USbreathe. "I don't wish this on anyone," Hernandez said of the ordeal, thanking the medical staff. He was due to remain in isolation at home with his wife, who also tested positive.

Tweet by Nursultan Nazarbayev's spokesman Aidos Ukibay. /CGTN screenshot

Kazakhstan's first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, went into self-isolation after testing positive three weeks ago. A new test has now come back negative, his spokesman tweeted on Friday, adding however that the president will "continue to maintain a self-isolation regime, work remotely and devote time to outdoor walks," the

Astana Times

reported.

Mexico's Finance Minister Arturo Herrera Gutierrez announced on June 25 that he had tested positive, prompting fears of contagion as he had held several meetings in the days prior with top government members as well as President Andrds Manuel Lopez Obradoras. The fears proved unfounded in the end and Herrera has said he is recovering well and working from home.

Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenskaya was meanwhile discharged last week after a COVID-19 diagnosis and a stint in hospital. President Vladimir Zelensky and their children have tested negative.

(Cover image: A mural representing a worker in protective gear spraying disinfectant on the new coronavirus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 22, 2020.)