Negative Covid test for council leader after LA mayor meeting

COUNCIL leader Susan Aitken has returned a negative Covid-19 test and will resume COP26 engagements.

She had been selfisolating after meeting with the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, who tested positive for the virus.

The Glasgow City Council leader pulled out of events yesterday, but has now revealed she will be returning to work.

Cllr Aitken said on social media: “PCR test back negative in time for the big climate march tomorrow.

“Sending the very best of wishes to our friend Eric Garcetti for a swift recovery and return to full health.”

Mr Garcetti’s office announced on Wednesday that he had tested positive and had cancelled his scheduled events at the SEC, where the United Nations climate talks are being held.

It was revealed he is isolating in his hotel room and the LA Times reported he is “tentatively” scheduled to return to Los Angeles on November 13.

His office said he was fully vaccinated and “feeling good”. The LA mayor had attended a summit with politicians, including Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson, at the

Clydeside Distillery on Tuesday.

Cllr Aitken has been meeting with COP26 delegates from around the world while the conference is taking place in the city.

Today, around 100,000 people are expected to march from Kelvingrove Park to Glasgow Green to demand action to tackle the climate emergency.

Fears over the spread of Covid-19 at the climate conference were raised before tens of thousands of delegates and climate activists arrived in Glasgow.

Earlier this week, the Scottish Government adviser Professor Devi Sridhar, from the University of Edinburgh, said queues at the SEC were “really concerning”.

She told BBC Good Morning Scotland she had been “quite anxious” knowing “how fragile the situation has been”.

Professor Sridhar added: “It’s a really tricky one because obviously this is the worst timing ever during a pandemic, but at the same time I listen to those people who work in climate and they are saying now is the time, not now we have an existential threat to humanity.”