European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday tweeted that she had decided to self-isolate after contact with a COVID-19 patient.
"I've been informed that I participated in a meeting last Tuesday attended by a person who yesterday tested positive for COVID-19," she tweeted.
The test the chief executive of the European Union (EU) went through Thursday showed negative results. She retested on Monday and got negative results again.
Von der Leyen tweeted that despite the negative test results, she is to remain in self-isolation until Tuesday evening, as per the COVID-19 containment rules in place in Belgium, where the European Commission is located.
People who have been in high-risk contact with infected patients must remain at home for seven days, starting from when they have contact with the infected person, according to the measures in Belgium.
High-risk contacts refer to contact longer than 15 minutes in an enclosed space and with less than 1.5 meters of distance.
Von der Leyen, her cabinet and members of staff working closely with her are routinely tested twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays, declared the commission's chief spokesperson Eric Mamer on Monday.
Von der Leyen is the latest of a number of high ranking EU officials taking the precautionary measures in recent weeks.
European Council President Charles Michel was in quarantine for one week after one of his security officers tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, the special summit of EU leaders, originally scheduled for Sept. 24-25 in Brussels, was postponed to Oct. 1-2.
Valdis Dombrovskis and Frans Timmermans, executive vice presidents of the European Commission, started to go into quarantine on Sept. 23 and 28 respectively.
On Sept. 29, von der Leyen was in Lisbon, Portugal, meeting officials including Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa. She gave a speech at the Champalimaud Foundation and attended the Council of State.
