Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in isolation after exposure to COVID-19

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau isolates at home but has no symptoms after high-risk contact with COVID-19.

In a tweet Thursday, Trudeau said he heard of the contact after a three-day cabinet withdrawal.

“I heard last night that I was exposed to COVID-19. My quick test result was negative. “

The prime minister said he was following Ottawa’s public health briefing and “isolating for five days. I feel good and will work from home. Stay safe, everyone – and please get vaccinated. ”

Trudeau stood near three of his top cabinet ministers, masked and distanced himself, after the refuge to reveal his government’s response to the unfolding crisis in Ukraine.

Addressing the truck drivers’ protest against vaccine mandates, he said vaccination was the way out of the pandemic and encouraged the remaining minority of truck drivers to get a stab.

Trudeau’s wife, Sophie, had COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic, but Trudeau did not contract it, even as members of his staff and protective RCMP detail did in December when the highly portable Omicron variant made its sprint. started by Canada.

Defense Minister Anita Anand will travel to Ukraine in the coming days after announcing the expansion of a military training mission in the disputed country.

A PMO spokesman told the Star that Trudeau’s exposure came after Wednesday’s late-night press conference on Ukraine, and that he did the quick test on Wednesday night, showing a negative result. It is not clear if this was a family or staff exposure.

But the prime minister’s office does not believe that other ministers had any high-risk contact with Trudeau or the same contact that the office refused to identify.

The office declined to say whether Trudeau had a molecular PCR test, which is more accurate than a rapid test. The spokesman said he was following public health rules to isolate for five days anyway.

Ottawa Public Health has restricted PCR testing to essential workers and caregivers to vulnerable people and those in high-risk environments.

Symptomatic people are supposed to have COVID and need to isolate them. If asymptomatic – as Trudeau says she is – testing is further limited, but isolation is also necessary.

The office declined to say whether the prime minister was considered a necessary worker for the purposes of determining whether he had an infection, referring inquiries back to his tweet.