GLASGOW, Scotland (NWN) – Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday while attending the United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, an event that has helped world leaders and the world over. Has attracted thousands of others.
His office announced a positive test result in a tweet, only adding: “He is feeling well and in isolation in his hotel room. He has been fully vaccinated.”
The climate summit is taking place in the United Kingdom at a time of very high coronavirus rates. UN organizers of the conference put in place strict rules to prevent infection, including requiring each attendee to wear a mask and showing daily proof of a negative result upon entering the venue each morning.
Garcetti arrived by train on Monday Along with other mayors from around the world including London, Paris, Dhaka, Bangladesh and Freetown, Sierra Leone. Garcetti is among countless political and science leaders who have given speeches, appeared on panels, posed for group photos and interacted with others at climate talks.
Like many other participants, Garcetti differentiated between wearing a mask, not photographs from the summit.
Efforts to reach a UN spokesman for the conference by phone and email were not immediately successful late Wednesday afternoon.
About 25,000 people at the summit raised the badge on Wednesday before the news of Garcetti’s positive test, Laura Lopez, director of summit affairs. Of these, 97% have been vaccinated.
Lopez said there were about eight COVID cases, including a UN employee.
He said that on Monday, the day world leaders spoke at the summit, about 1,000 people flocked to the front turnstiles without conducting their lateral flow tests. They were taken to a different site and tested before going inside.
Organizers briefly closed the entry points the same day when the number of people inside reached 10,000, another precaution against infection.
The UK government on Tuesday recorded 33,865 infections and 293 deaths, the highest daily death toll since February. While the number of cases is falling from a peak of around 46,000 per day in October, the country’s case rate is still much higher than most of Europe.
So-called breakthrough infections are rare in fully vaccinated people, although vaccinated people can spread the virus to others.
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