UK foreign secretary catches Covid

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has announced that she has caught Covid and will be self-isolating ahead of “an important week for diplomacy.”

“I tested positive for Covid this evening. Thankfully I’ve had my three jabs and will be working from home while I isolate,” she wrote on Twitter on Monday evening.

The announcement came just hours after Truss had given a statement on toughening sanctions against Russia in a packed House of Commons and attended a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, government officials and MPs, at which she did not wear a mask, according to the British media.

The foreign secretary has fallen sick at a time when her boss is battling the ‘Partygate’ scandal, which might prompt a leadership challenge, and at the beginning of what the prime minister’s office called “an important week for diplomacy.”

On Tuesday, Johnson is heading to Kiev for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “in demonstration of support to Ukraine” amid growing tensions with Russia. Truss was due to accompany the prime minister on his visit.