A senior Lebanese official said today, Friday, that he had received bad news that he had been infected with Covid-19 during a lunch with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who is visiting Lebanon.
"Yesterday, I was surprised when we were at the lunch table with Minister Lu Drian, in contact with the hospital, and they say that the examination is positive. Of course, I withdrew from lunch and informed the attendees after the official result came to me," Hadi al-Hashem, director of the Lebanese Foreign Minister's office, told OTV.
A spokesman for Le Drian did not immediately comment. On Thursday, the French minister had lunch with Lebanese officials as part of a visit to urge reforms to Lebanon's crisis economy.
In his comments, Al-Hashem told OTV that he had conducted the examination before a scheduled trip to Denmark, but that he is now isolating himself at home until Monday before another examination.
"The result surprised us, and the most important thing about it is that the virus rate is low and not contagious," he said.
An official at the Lebanese Ministry of Health told Reuters that the Lebanese Foreign Minister Nassif Hatti and the director of political affairs at the ministry were subject to examination after the discovery of Al-Hashim’s injury, but the result was negative.
Since February, Lebanon has registered 3,258 new Coronavirus infections and 43 deaths.