Trump joins growing list of world leaders testing positive for coronavirus

President Donald Trump has tested positive for the coronavirus, joining a small group of world leaders who have been infected. Trump is 74, putting him at higher risk of serious complications. Here’s a look at other leaders who have had the virus.

Boris Johnson

The British prime minister was the first major world leader confirmed to have Covid-19. He was moved to intensive care in April after his symptoms dramatically worsened a day after he was hospitalised for what were called routine tests. 

He was given oxygen but did not need a ventilator, officials said.

He later expressed his gratitude to National Health Service staff for saving his life when his treatment could have “gone either way.”

READ MORE: US President Trump and first lady test positive for Covid-19

Jair Bolsonaro

The Brazilian president announced his illness in July and used it to publicly extol hydroxychloroquine, the unproven malaria drug that he’d been promoting as a treatment for Covid-19 and was taking himself. 

For months he had flirted with the virus as he flouted social distancing at lively demonstrations and encouraged crowds during outings from the presidential residence, often without a mask.

Juan Orlando Hernandez

The Honduras president announced in June that he had tested positive, along with two other people who worked closely with him.

Hernandez said he had started what he called the “MAIZ treatment,” an experimental and unproven combination of microdacyn, azithromycin, ivermectin and zinc. He was briefly hospitalised and released. He has added his voice to growing pleas for equitable access to any Covid-19 vaccine, asking the recent U.N. gathering of world leaders, “Are people to be left to die?”

Alexander Lukashenko

The president of Belarus, who dismissed concerns about the virus as “psychosis” and recommended drinking vodka to stay healthy, said in July he had contracted it himself but was asymptomatic.

Belarus is one of the few countries that took no comprehensive measures against the virus. Other top officials in former Soviet states who were infected include Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

Alejandro Giammattei

The Guatemalan president said he tested positive for the virus in September. “My symptoms are very mild. Up to now, I have body aches, it hurt more yesterday than today, like a bad cold,” he said during a televised address.

“I don’t have a fever, I have a bit of a cough.” He said he’d be working from home.

Jeanine Anez

The virus drove the Bolivian interim president into isolation in July, but she said she was feeling well.

Luis Abinader

The newly elected president of the Dominican Republic contracted and recovered from Covid-19 during his campaign. He spent weeks in isolation before the country’s July election.

Iranian leaders

Iran, the epicentre of the Mideast’s initial coronavirus outbreak, has seen several top officials test positive. Among them are senior Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri and Vice President Massoumeh Ebtekar.

READ MORE: Politicians, celebrities, sports stars infected by coronavirus

READ MORE: Bolsonaro and other world figures that have tested Covid-19 positive

Cabinet members have tested positive, too.

Indian leaders

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, 71, recently tested positive but his office said he had no symptoms and was quarantined at home. Home Minister Amit Shah, the No 2 man in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, was hospitalized for Covid-19 last month and has recovered. Junior Railways Minister Suresh Angadi last week was the first federal minister to die from Covid-19.

Israeli leaders

Israel’s then-Health Minister Yaakov Litzman tested positive in April and recovered.

Litzman is a leader in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, which has seen a high rate of infection as many have defied restrictions on religious gatherings. The minister for Jerusalem affairs, Rafi Peretz, tested positive over the summer as cases surged nationwide and recovered.

South African leaders

The country's mineral resources and energy minister, Gwede Mantashe, and Labor Minister Thulas Nxesi were infected as cases surged in June and July.

South Sudanese leaders

Vice President Riek Machar was among several Cabinet ministers infected.