Austrian foreign minister tests positive for coronavirus

VIENNA - Austria’s chief diplomat, Alexander Schallenberg, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, his spokeswoman said on Saturday.

The 51-year-old foreign minister is quarantining at home but does not have symptoms of COVID-19 so far, she told dpa.

After Schallenberg’s infection was detected in a routine test on Friday, all his fellow Austrian ministers tested negative on Saturday, the chancellor’s office said. Schallenberg cancelled his upcoming trips to Britain, Denmark, Greece and Cyprus, which he had scheduled between Monday and Friday.

Schallenberg might have caught the virus at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg last Monday, the spokesperson said. Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes said on Saturday that she had tested positive for the coronavirus.