Uruguayan President Lacalle Pou heads into quarantine

Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Pou and two other government officials have gone into quarantine after coming into contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19, it emerged at press time last night.

As well as the Partido Nacional leader, the government said that Secretary to the Presidency Álvaro Delgado, and Defence Minister Javier García had also gone into isolation after a departmental director at Uruguay’s Social Development Ministry tested positive.

All three officials will undergo immediate testing to see if they have contracted the virus.

“The president and the rest of the leaders and participants of the aforementioned meeting will remain in quarantine until the results of the analysis,” the government said in a statement.

Lacalle Pou was in Rivera, a city on the border with Brazil where controls were tightened due to the spread of the pandemic in the neighbouring country, on Monday and Thursday of this week. On the first visit, he met with Natalia López, an official who did not have symptoms but later tested positive.

Officials said all those involved in the meeting wore face masks and that the decision to go into isolation was a preventative step.

– TIMES/NA