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Additional information from Reuters.
Foreign Minister Simon Coveney attended a meeting Monday with his Austrian counterpart, who has since tested positive for Covid-19.
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg may have contracted the virus in meeting with his European Union counterparts, a ministry spokeswoman said today.
Mr Schallenberg’s infection raises the possibility that the EU Foreign Affairs Council is a so-called super-differentiating event. Her Belgian counterpart, Sophie Wilmes, said Friday that she was going to isolate herself with suspicious symptoms.
“It is suspected that Schallenberg could have been infected at the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday,” the Austrian spokeswoman said, adding that he had no symptoms and had been examined as a routine measure.
Mr. Coveney traveled to the meeting in Luxembourg and confirmed to the Irish Times on Saturday that he held a bilateral meeting with Mr. Schallenberg after the council.
The bilateral took place in the halls of the Irish delegation in Luxembourg and was convened to discuss Brexit and also the European Peace Fund, which is of common interest to Ireland and Austria, as both are neutral countries.
About five people attended the meeting that lasted about 15 minutes and involved a social distancing of at least two meters.
Close contact can mean “spending more than 15 minutes of face-to-face contact within two meters of someone who has Covid-19, indoors or outdoors,” according to the Health Service Executive (HSE) website.
Coveney told the newspaper that he learned of Schallenberg’s diagnosis today and that he intends to contact the HSE to establish how he should proceed and whether a close contact with his Austrian counterpart will be considered.
Mr. Coveney has tested negative for the disease and has been limiting his movements to essential jobs only, which involve traveling to the Dáil, cabinet meetings, working in the Department and his own offices.
Coveney attended a socially estranged cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss improved measures to control the virus in Ireland, where he was not in the same room as the Taoiseach, Tánaiste or the Minister of Health. It is understood that there were at least two other ministers in the meeting room with Mr. Coveney during the cabinet meeting.
This article was modified on October 17. Minister of State Thomas Byrne did not attend the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on 12 October.
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