TOKYO : Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has tested positive for Covid-19, forcing him to cancel a planned trip to Tunisia to attend a key conference on African development, a person close to him said on Sunday.
Kishida, who has just returned from a week-long vacation, will work from his residence from Monday and will join the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) online, the source said, asking not to be identified because he is not authorised to talk to the media.
The prime minister developed a cough and fever on Saturday and took a PCR test on Sunday morning, which confirmed the positive result in the afternoon, a Cabinet Office spokesperson said separately.
Kishida's infection comes as Japan experiences a record resurgence in coronavirus cases through July and August, hitting businesses in the world's third-biggest economy, although deaths remain relatively low and the disruptions have been milder than in some other advanced economies.
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