Over 150 Saudi Royal Family members, including Riyadh governor Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud infected by coronavirus and undergoing treatment. King Salman and his all- powerful son Mohammed bin Salman go in self-isolation.
Syed Ali Ahmed | India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, APRIL 10—The noble coronavirus disease or COVID-19 has taken in its grip a large number of political leaders, heads of governments, ministers, as also royals, along with the commoners, all over the globe.
If huge number of common people have been quarantined owing to fear of contracting or spreading the virus, royals and several heads of governments all over the world are equally scared and hiding themselves from the attack of invisible virus.
A senior member of the Saudi Royal Family as also over 100 members of the Kingdom’s royal family are reported to have contracted COVID-19 disease in the last few weeks.
Reports appearing in international media say that Riyadh governor and senior royal family member-Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is under treatment in an intensive care unit of a government hospital after contracting the deadly virus.
A large number of princes are reported to have contracted the coronavirus disease as most of the 15,000 Saudi royal family members keep on travelling between their own country and Europe and America for studies and other reasons.
Media reports say that dozens of them were brought back and they may have contracted the disease during their stay in Europe and spreading it among royals.
Meanwhile, King Salman and his son-Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), using all the powers of the King, have isolated themselves. While King Salman has isolated himself in an island, MBS has quarantined himself on the outskirts of a coastal town.
However, it is not known if father and son duo have contracted the virus or not.
Saudi Arabia has already banned the year-round Umrah pilgrimage. It has also not so far announced if the annual Haj pilgrimage which falls in July this year, will be held or not. Last year, about 25 lakh people from all over the globe performed Haj.
Having a population of about 33 million or 3.3 crores, it has so far reported 2,932 COVID-19 positive case and 41 deaths due to the disease.
Apart from it, 67 political leaders including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the 71-year-old Prince Charles, heir apparent to the British throne, have also been infected by the killer virus and are under treatment.
Spanish Princess Maria Teresa was the first royal to have died after contracting COVID1-9 a few days ago.
Here is a list of important political leaders and others infected by COVID-19:
Australia: Home Minister of Australia, Peter Dutton and two senators Susan McDonald, Andrew Bragg, a senator of the Liberal Party of Australia from New South Wales.
Brazil: Fabio Wajngarten, press secretary of Brazilian President, Augusto Heleno, Brazil’s national security advisor, Davi Alcolumbre, the head of Brazil’s Senate, Bento Albuquerque, Brazil’s mines and energy minister.
Burkino Faso: Four ministers Oumarou Idani, Stanislas Ouaro, Simeon Sawadogo and Alpha Barry have been infected.
Canada: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, tested positive.
European Union: Michel Barnier, the European Union’s chief negotiator for Brexit tested positive.
France: Minister of Culture Franck Riester was diagnosed with the corona virus, Brune Poirson, the secretary of state to the minister of ecological and inclusive transition has tested positive for coronavirus.
Germany: Friedrich Merz, one of the leading candidates to take up the helm of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Iran: Iran has been one of the countries hardest-hit by the coronavirus, at least 24 members of parliament have contracted the virus, and two have died: Fatemeh Rahbar from Tehran, and Mohammad Ali Ramezani from Gilan.
Others reported to have contracted the virus include: Iraj Harirchi, deputy health minister; Masoumeh Ebtekar, vice president for women and family affairs; Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign-policy advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei; Mojtaba Rahmanzadeh, local mayor of Tehran’s District 13; Mahmoud Sadeghi, member of parliament, Tehran; Mohammad Reza Ghadir, director of Qom’s state medical university and head of coronavirus management in the city; Pirhossein Kolivand, director of Iran’s emergency medical services; Eshaq Jahangiri, first vice president; Ismail Najjar, chief of Iran’s Crisis Management Organization; Mostafa Pourmohammadi, former minister of justice and minister of the interior; Reza Rahmani, Minister of Industry, Mines and Business (has since recovered from the virus); Ali Asghar Mounesan, minister of cultural heritage, handicrafts, and tourism; Reza Salehi Amiri, president of the National Olympic Committee of Iran; Mojtaba Zonnour, chairman of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee; Masoumeh Aghapour Alishahi, member of parliament from East Azerbaijan province and Zohreh Elahian, member of parliament from Tehran.
Israel: Yaakov Litzman, health minister, and Jeremy Issacharoff, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, tested positive.
Italy: Nicola Zingaretti, the head of the Democratic Party reported positive; Roberto Stella, the president of the Order of Doctors in Varese in the Lombardy region and Giorgio Valoti, the mayor of Cene died of corona virus.
Monaco: Prince Albert of Monaco has tested positive for the coronavirus on March 19.
Nigeria: Abba Kyari, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief of staff and Bala Mohammed, the leader of Nigeria’s Bauchi state were confirmed to have the corona virus.
Norway: Torbjorn Roe Isaksen, the Norwegian minister of labour and social inclusion, tested positive.
Philippines: Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, a member of the Senate of the Philippines tested positive.
Poland: Gen. Jaroslaw Mika, the general commander of Poland’s armed forces, tested positive for the coronavirus after returning from a military conference in Germany, which was also attended by top U.S. Army leaders and Michal Wos, environment minister also tested positive for coronavirus.
Spain: Begoña Gómez, the wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez; Irene Montero, Spain’s equality minister; Javier Ortega Smith, the secretary-general of the far-right Vox party; Quim Torra, the leader of the Spanish region of Catalonia; Pere Aragones, the Catalan deputy head of the government, Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo tested positive.
Ukraine: Serhiy Shakhov, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, became the first public figure in the country to announce that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.
United Kingdom: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Prince Charles, the next in line to the British throne, Health Minister Nadine Dorries, Matthew Hancock, Britain’s health secretary, tested positive. Johnson was in ICU.
There are now more than 16,21,348 (1.6 million) confirmed coronavirus around the world. The number of deaths has gone up to 97,180 as on today and number of those recovered are 3,66,215.
The highest death figure has so far been reported from Italy (18279), followed by USA (16697), Spain (15843), France (12,210), UK (7978), Iran ( 4232), China from where the coronavirus originated (3336), Belgium ( 3019), Germany (2607), Netherlands (2511) and Brazil (957).
