New Zealand PM contracts Covid during election campaign

WELLINGTON: New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said on Sunday that he had contracted Covid-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.

Hipkins said on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country´s general election. The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements.

“Bugger! After a rough night I woke up this morning feeling pretty unwell and just got this test result,” he said in an Instagram post, accompanied by a photograph of a rapid antigen test. “I´m in close contact with New Zealanders on the campaign trail and I don´t want to pass it on to anyone, so I´ll be following the guidance and isolating for a few days or until I get a negative test. “I´ll try to keep up as many campaign engagements remotely as I can.”