Turkish president tests positive for COVID-19

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19, The Associated Press reported.

“Today, the result of our COVID-19 test, which I had with my wife after mild symptoms, was positive. Thankfully, we have a mild illness, which we learned to be an Omicron variant,” Erdoğan said in a tweet Saturday.

“We are on our mission. We will continue our work at home. We look forward to your prayers,” he added.

Erdoğan did not show symptoms of the virus during a televised appearance Saturday, the AP noted.

Rumors and speculation surrounding the president’s well-being have been the cause of controversy in the past, with officials launching investigations against social media users who’ve questioned the leader’s health, the AP noted.  

Turkey is seeing a surge of coronavirus cases, with the Health Ministry recording 111,157 cases and 248 deaths on Friday.