PM Trudeau in isolation after COVID-19 exposure

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will be isolating for five days, after being exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Trudeau said in a tweet Thursday morning that he learned about the exposure Wednesday night.

He has taken a rapid test and was negative and said he is feeling fine and will be working from home, following guidance from Ottawa Public Health. 

Ottawa Public Health’s guidance states that in situations where individuals are asymptomatic and have taken a negative rapid antigen test, self-isolation is not required unless you are isolating because of a close contact, such as a symptomatic household member.  

The Prime Minister’s Office has told CTV News that Trudeau’s exposure occurred after he appeared alongside three ministers at a press conference on Parliament Hill on Wednesday evening marking the end of a “virtual” cabinet retreat.

This afternoon, Trudeau is set to attend a virtual caucus retreat where he’ll address his 158 members of Parliament. He also has plans on his public itinerary for the day, to speak with the Prime Ministers of Barbados and Latvia.

The timing of his exposure means that he will remain in self-isolation over the weekend, when the so-called “freedom convoy” of truckers is set to arrive in the nation’s capital, and into early next week when the House of Commons resumes.

Trudeau is fully vaccinated and received a COVID-19 booster shot on Jan. 4.

This is not the first time the prime minister has been exposed to the virus.

Early in the pandemic, in March 2020, he went into a 14-day isolation after his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau tested positive for COVID-19, and in late December 2021 he announced he was testing regularly and self-monitoring after some members of his staff and security detail tested positive.