Singapore’s PM Lee Hsien Loong feeling OK after testing positive for COVID-19

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time, he said in a Facebook post on Monday.

“I am generally feeling ok but my doctors have advised me to self-isolate until I am asymptomatic,” Lee, 71, said. Doctors have also prescribed him Paxlovid, an antiviral medication, because of his age. Lee said he took his most recent booster vaccine for the virus last November.

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Lee, who has led the city-state for nearly two decades, has suffered occasional health scares in the past. He successfully underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 2015, and was separately diagnosed with lymphoma in 1992, although the cancer went into remission after treatment. He was also forced to pause a high-profile televised speech in 2016 after taking ill, although his doctors said it was not due to any major ailments.

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Singapore won plaudits during the pandemic for keeping deaths relatively low compared to other nations. It has since pivoted to living with the virus by ditching measures such as compulsory mask-wearing. Hospitalizations in the country have risen in recent weeks due to another COVID-19 wave but authorities have said infections are past its peak.

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