Trump coronavirus: Other world leaders who've been infected

Leaders who have contracted the coronavirus

Oct. 2, 2020 Updated 6:22 AM PT

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — President Trump has tested positive for the coronavirus, joining a small group of world leaders who have been infected. Trump is 74, putting him at higher risk of serious complications. Here’s a look at other leaders who have been infected.

Boris Johnson

The British prime minister was the first major world leader confirmed to have COVID-19. He was moved to intensive care in April when his virus symptoms dramatically worsened a day after he was hospitalized for what were called routine tests. He was given oxygen but did not need a ventilator, officials said. He later expressed his gratitude to National Health Service staff for saving his life when his treatment could have “gone either way.” Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, also tested positive in March and came down with mild COVID-19 symptoms.

Jair Bolsonaro

The Brazilian president announced his illness in July and used it to publicly extol hydroxychloroquine, the unproven malaria drug that he’d been promoting as a treatment for COVID-19 and was taking himself. For months he had flouted social distancing at lively demonstrations and encouraged crowds during outings from the presidential residence, often without a mask.

Juan Orlando Hernandez

The Honduran president announced in June that he and his wife had tested positive, along with two other people who worked closely with them. Hernandez said he had started what he called the “MAIZ treatment,” an experimental and unproven combination of microdacyn, azithromycin, ivermectin and zinc that his government was promoting as an affordable way of attacking the disease. He was briefly hospitalized and released in July. Hernandez has added his voice to growing pleas for equitable access to any COVID-19 vaccine, asking the recent U.N. gathering of world leaders, “Are people to be left to die?”

Alexander Lukashenko

The president of Belarus, who dismissed concerns about the virus as “psychosis” and recommended drinking vodka to stay healthy, said in July he had contracted it himself but was asymptomatic. Belarus is one of the few countries that took no comprehensive measures against the virus. Other top officials in former Soviet states who were infected include Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

Prince Albert II of Monaco

The palace of Monaco in March said the ruler of the tiny Mediterranean principality tested positive but his health was not worrying. He was the first head of state who publicly said he was infected.

Here's what to know about the president testing positive for the coronavirus

UPDATED Oct. 7, 2020 | 6:14 AM

What's the latest?

The president returned to the White House on Monday evening, three days after he was taken by helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He said on Twitter on Monday that he was looking forward to the next debate, set for Oct. 15.

Who else close to Trump has tested positive?

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced Monday that she’s tested positive. We also know the first lady, Hope Hicks, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), former White House official and top advisor Kellyanne Conway, campaign manager Bill Stepien, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Trump’s assistant Nicholas Luna, senior advisor Stephen Miller and some White House reporters have all tested positive.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife tested negative, as did the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, social media director Dan Scavino and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Joe Biden, who shared the debate stage with Trump on Sept. 29, tested negative again on Sunday.

But negative tests today don’t necessarily rule out having the virus — according to the CDC, the first symptoms can appear in as few as two days but can take up to two weeks. An incubation period of four or five days is more typical.

How did the news break?

After close aide Hope Hicks tested positive, the president tweeted early Friday that he and First Lady Melania Trump also had tested positive, and his doctor released a statement shortly afterward.

Alejandro Giammattei

The Guatemalan president said he tested positive for the virus in September. “My symptoms are very mild. Up to now, I have body aches, it hurt more yesterday than today, like a bad cold,” the president said during a televised address. “I don’t have a fever, I have a bit of a cough.” He said he’d be working from home.

Jeanine Anez

The virus drove the Bolivian interim president into isolation in July, but she said she was feeling well.

Luis Abinader

The newly elected president of the Dominican Republic contracted and recovered from COVID-19 during his campaign. He spent weeks in isolation before the country’s July election.

Iran

Iran, the epicenter of the Mideast’s initial coronavirus outbreak, has seen several top officials test positive. Among them are senior Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri and Vice President Massoumeh Ebtekar. Cabinet members have tested positive too. In February, Iran denied for days that the virus was in the country. After struggling to lock down, Iran has largely reopened its economy even as cases and deaths rise higher.

India

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, 71, recently tested positive but his office said he had no symptoms and was quarantined at home. Home Minister Amit Shah, the No. 2 man in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, was hospitalized for COVID-19 last month and has recovered. Junior Railways Minister Suresh Angadi last week was the first federal minister to die from COVID-19.

Israel

Israel’s then-Health Minister Yaakov Litzman tested positive in April and recovered. Litzman is a leader in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, which has seen a high rate of infection as many have defied restrictions on religious gatherings. The minister for Jerusalem affairs, Rafi Peretz, tested positive over the summer as cases surged nationwide and recovered.

South Africa

The country’s defense minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula; mineral resources and energy minister, Gwede Mantashe; and labor minister, Thulas Nxesi, were infected as cases surged in June and July.