Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and will recuperate at home until at least June 11, officials said.
Hayashi is experiencing only mild symptoms, according to the Foreign Ministry. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press conference that no one at the ministry or the prime minister’s office has been identified as a close contact.
Hayashi felt pain in his throat when he went to the ministry on Wednesday morning, and took a PCR test for the coronavirus, an official said.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks to reporters at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo on May 9, 2022. (Kyodo)
He skipped a session of the House of Representatives Budget Committee in the afternoon and also canceled separate meetings with a group of U.S. lawmakers and U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera.
Hayashi held talks with North Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani on Monday in Tokyo but did not meet any other leaders or counterparts from other nations this week.
The foreign minister attended a meeting between Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden on May 23 and had separate talks with his counterparts from the United States, India and Australia on the sidelines of a Quad summit held the following day, both in Tokyo.
He also hosted the foreign ministers of Singapore and Malaysia on May 25, and Vietnam’s standing deputy prime minister the following day.
The number of new COVID-19 cases across Japan has been below 30,000 per day lately, compared with about 100,000 in early February when the country was struggling to contain the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
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