Merkel tests negative as Germany unveils €750bn business bailout

ANGELA MERKEL has tested negative for coronavirus after going into selfisolation on Sunday evening over fears she could have contracted the disease.

“The result of today’s test was negative,” said Steffen Seibert, Mrs Merkel’s spokesman, adding that she would have further tests in the coming days.”

The German chancellor was told, just minutes after she addressed the nation to inform people that groups of three or more people would be banned for the next two weeks, that a doctor who vaccinated her against pneumonia had tested positive for the virus.

She withdrew to her private home in central Berlin on a voluntary basis.

Mr Seibert said she was “doing well” and “was delighted at the huge number of people who had wished her well and wanted to thank them all”.

Mrs Merkel, 65, continued working despite being in self-isolation. Yesterday she chaired a meeting of the German cabinet via video link while the rest of its members met as usual in person at the Chancellery. Mr Seibert described the sitting as “one the likes of which we have never seen in the history of the German republic” due to the massive financial pledges agreed upon.

The cabinet agreed a €750 billion (£700billion) rescue package for businesses and the self-employed, a package that involves demolishing Germany’s cherished balanced budget by taking on €150billion in new debts.

The measures are set to be voted on at the Bundestag tomorrow in the first sitting since the coronavirus crisis began. Mrs Merkel had hoped to open the debate but will now no longer play any part.

Olaf Scholz, the finance minister, confirmed yesterday that the chancellor had asked him to open the debate.

Mrs Merkel has rarely in her 15 years at the top of German politics taken more than a few days off for sickness.

In 2014, after injuring her pelvis in a skiing accident, she worked from her hospital bed.

Last year, she insisted on sticking to a tough schedule that included a G20 summit in Japan despite suffering from shaking fits during a heatwave.