Kishida tests positive for novel coronavirus

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:00 JST, August 21, 2022

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the government said Sunday.

Kishida will likely cancel his trip to Tunisia, where he was scheduled to attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) on Aug. 27-28.

The prime minister had shown symptoms such as a slight fever and coughing since Saturday evening. He underwent a PCR test Sunday morning and was confirmed to have contracted the virus.

Kishida was on a summer holiday from the evening of Aug. 15, during which he played golf in Ibaraki Prefecture and stayed at a hotel in Shizuoka Prefecture, among other outings. He returned to Tokyo on Friday afternoon.