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Luxembourg Premier Bettel Hospitalized After Covid Diagnosis

Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg's prime minister, speaks to journalists as he arrives at a European Leaders (EU) summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday, June 25, 2021. EU leaders agreed that vaccinations should be sped up, and that the bloc’s internal and external borders should be opened up cautiously and in a coordinated way.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel was admitted to the hospital on Sunday after testing positive for Covid-19, days after attending a summit with other European leaders.

By Aoife White

Word Count: 250
(Bloomberg) —The premier was diagnosed with Covid on June 27, after his return from the summit of European Union leaders in Brussels on June 24-25. Bettel, 48, will remain in the hospital as a precaution for 24 hours for tests and observation, the Luxembourg government said in a statement on its website.

He played an active role at the Brussels summit, which turned into a showdown over a controversial law in Hungary curtailing LGBTQ rights. Bettel, who is Luxembourg’s first openly gay prime minister, has been an outspoken critic of the legislation.

Bettel joins a growing list of political leaders who have contracted the virus, including former U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was the first leader to contract the virus and went on to thank doctors for saving his life after a stint on oxygen in intensive care.

Bettel received his first vaccine dose on May 6, he announced in a tweet at the time. Local media reported that the premier received the AstraZeneca shot.

(Updates with details on EU summit, other leaders with Covid)
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