Pedro Sanchez: Spanish PM self-isolating days after having lunch with Macron

Video footage shows both Mr Macron and Mr Sánchez wearing masks when they met

Mr Sanchez and Mr Macron met Monday (EPA)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will quarantine until 24 December after French President Emmanuel Macron tested positive for Covid-19, his office said in a statement on Thursday. 

Mr Sánchez and Mr Macron met on Monday in Paris. 

The Élysée Palace released a statement saying that Mr Macron had taken a test as soon as the symptoms appeared and that he would “self-isolate for seven days in line with the health protocol applicable to everyone”.

The 42-year-old French president will: "continue to work and carry out his activities remotely” said the palace. No precise details of his condition were given but an Élysée source said Mr Macron was “feeling well”.

Mr Sánchez was a lunch guest at the Élysée on Monday. Other guests at the lunch included president of the European council, Charles Michel, and secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, José Ángel Gurría. 

Mr Macron also met with 26 other European prime ministers and presidents at an EU summit in Brussels this time last week.

But asked whether they would be advised to self-isolate, an EU official said Mr Macron was "considered a potential risk of contagion as of Monday evening 14 December", days after the 10 and 11 December meeting in the Belgian capital.

The official said leaders at the meeting had observed "all sanitary measures" and "we have not been informed of any other participant or staff present during the summit who tested positive". Only Mr Sanchez, who met Mr Macron separately on 14 December in Paris, is thought to be self-isolating.  

At the start of the pandemic in March, the Spanish prime minister’s wife contracted coronavirus. 

The Spanish prime minister will now suspend all public appearances until Christmas Eve. 

The comes a day after Mr Sánchez announced that the government would not hesitate to toughen Spanish Christmas restrictions if need be. He said: “if we need to toughen up the Christmas plan, nobody should harbour any doubt that the government of Spain will propose it.”

Mr Macron’s wife Brigitte is also self-isolating, as is Richard Ferrand, the speaker of the French parliament.

Mrs Macron tested negative on Tuesday and is currently displaying no symptoms. 

The French president was due to visit the Lebanon next week in a planned trip to meet Lebanese officials and French troops. This has had to be cancelled. 

Mr Macron is the latest in a number of world leaders to test positive for Covid-19. British prime minister Boris Johnson, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and president of the United States, Donald Trump have all tested positive for coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.