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MEXICO CITY — Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was working from isolation on Monday, a day after announcing that he had tested positive for COVID-19, his interior secretary said.
The president was absent for the first time in his two years in office from his daily news conference.
Having shaped an administration so reliant on himself for everything from setting priorities to making public statements, López Obrador’s absence felt all the greater. It comes as his country registers its highest levels of infections and deaths to date.
López Obrador, who has been criticized for his handling of Mexico’s pandemic and for not setting an example of prevention in public, announced the diagnosis Sunday on his official Twitter account, saying, “The symptoms are mild but I am already under medical treatment.”
José Luis Alomía Zegarra, Mexico’s director of epidemiology, said the 67-year-old López Obrador had a “light” case of COVID-19 and was “isolating at home.”
On Monday, Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero said the president had designated her to hold the daily briefings until his return. She said López Obrador was well and strong.
“He is carrying out his functions as president of the republic. He will continue keeping an eye on public affairs,” she said. Sánchez Cordero, who spoke without wearing a mask, said she was awaiting test results of her own.
Despite his age and high blood pressure, López Obrador has not received a vaccine shot, though Mexico has received a batch of Pfizer-BioNTech doses. He has said that health workers would be the first to get them. Under the government plan, people over 60 will start being vaccinated in February.
López Obrador has rarely been seen wearing a mask and continued to keep up a busy travel schedule, taking commercial flights.
He spent the weekend in San Luis Potosi and Nuevo Leon states, where he was photographed without a mask.
He has also resisted locking down the economy, noting the devastating effect it would have on so many Mexicans who live day to day, despite that the country has registered nearly 150,000 COVID-19 deaths and more than 1.7 million infections. A new wave of infections has pushed the health system of the country’s capital city close to saturation.
Early in the pandemic, asked how he was protecting Mexico, López Obrador took two religious amulets from his wallet and proudly showed them off.
“The protective shield is the ‘Get thee behind me, Satan,’” López Obrador said, reading off the inscription on the amulet, “Stop, enemy, for the Heart of Jesus is with me.
In November, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, urged Mexico’s leaders be serious about the coronavirus and set examples for its citizens, saying that “Mexico is in bad shape” with the pandemic.
He didn’t name López Obrador, but said: “We would like to ask Mexico to be very serious.”
“We have said it in general; wearing a mask is important, hygiene is important and physical distancing is important and we expect leaders to be examples,” he added.
On Monday, the WHO chief said via Twitter: “I am sorry to hear that you have tested positive for #COVID19, President @lopezobrador— . I wish you swift recovery. Stay strong!”
At the start of the pandemic López Obrador was criticized for still leaning into crowds and giving hugs. The eternal campaigner, López Obrador’s style of politics has always been very hands-on and personal. As the pandemic grew he began limiting attendance to his events and maintaining his distance from supporters.
But on Friday, López Obrador posted a photo of him, Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, a translator and former chief of staff Alfonso Romo, all gathered around a table for a phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden. None was wearing a mask. Ebrard said via Twitter Monday that he was awaiting test results and would remain in isolation until he received a negative result.
López Obrador’s announcement came shortly after Ebrard said that the president would speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday about obtaining doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
That vaccine has not been approved for use in Mexico, but the government is desperate to fill supply gaps for the Pfizer vaccine.
Besides López Obrador, other Latin American leaders who have tested positive for the coronavirus include Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, Guatemala’s Alejandro Giammattei, Honduras’ Juan Orlando Hernández and Bolivia’s then-interim President Jeanine Ánéz. All have recovered.
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AP writers Mark Stevenson in Mexico City and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
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