ATHENS – Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Monday he had tested positive for COVID-19 and would be self-isolating at home, a day after a trip to Istanbul.

With a video he posted on Instagram on Monday afternoon and wearing a mask, Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that he tested positive for coronavirus earlier the same day and will spend the next few days in quarantine at home.

“Lately we have all been occupied with the war in Ukraine and the high prices. But the coronavirus is still here. In the daily test that I did this morning I came out positive and as a result I will be isolating at home and will work from there. I want you to remember that the triple vaccination provides the best possible safety against serious illness and I am sure that everything will go well and I will be in my office again very soon,” he said.

Mitsotakis held talks Sunday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is considered the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians.

Mitsotakis, wearing a mask, said in a video posted on Instagram that the result of his daily coronavirus test was positive on Monday, and he would therefore be working from home.

Mitsotakis met with the 82-year-old Bartholomew, who is based in Turkey’s largest city, and attend a church service there.

Both Erdogan and Bartholomew are fully vaccinated and have previously tested positive for the virus — Erdogan on Feb. 5 and Bartholomew in December. Erdogan’s wife Emine had also contracted the virus and both have since recovered, as has Bartholomew, who had suffered mild symptoms at the time.

Greece has seen a total of more than 2.6 million confirmed positive coronavirus cases and more than 26,500 deaths since the start of the pandemic. More than 7.5 million of the country’s roughly 11 million population are fully vaccinated.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Kyriakos Mitsotakis (@kyriakos_)