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Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has confirmed he has coronavirus.
Key points:
- Peter Dutton tested positive after waking up with a temperature and sore throat
- He will remain in hospital where he will be treated for the virus
- The Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers will not go into self-isolation
The Federal Government frontbencher said he felt fine but woke up with a temperature and sore throat.
"I immediately contacted the Queensland Department of Health and was subsequently tested for COVID-19," Mr Dutton said in a statement.
"I was advised by Queensland Health this afternoon that the test had returned positive.
"It is the policy of Queensland Health that anyone who tests positive is to be admitted into hospital and I have complied with their advice.
"I feel fine and will provide an update in due course."
Mr Dutton was in Sydney for a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and returned to Brisbane on a commercial flight on the same day.
"In advice provided to the Prime Minister this evening, the deputy chief medical officer has reiterated that only people who had close contact with the Minister in the preceding 24 hours before he became symptomatic need to self-isolate," a spokesperson for Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
"That does not include the Prime Minister or any other members of the Cabinet."
Mr Morrison will not be tested for COVID-19, based on medical advice.
Mr Dutton participated in Cabinet's national security committee meeting on Thursday, during which the Government decided to extend its China, Italy, Iran and South Korean travel bans, via phone.
The US deputy press secretary, Judd Deere, released a statement saying the White House was aware Mr Dutton had tested positive for COVID-19.
Mr Dutton had been in the US last week, where he met with Ivanka Trump, Attorney-General William Barr and officials from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance on March 6, according to a Twitter post from Australia's embassy in the United States.
"He was asymptomatic during the interaction," the statement said.
"Exposures from the case were assessed and the White House Medical Unit confirmed, in accordance with CDC guidance, that Ivanka is exhibiting no symptoms and does not need to self-quarantine.
"She worked from home today out of an abundance of caution until guidance was given."
When someone contracts COVID-19, health officials alert people who have been in contact with them.
They are then expected to self-isolate at home and monitor their health for 14 days after the contact with the infected person.
"Following confirmation the Minister for Home Affairs has tested positive for coronavirus, he has been isolated according to the policies of Queensland Health," the Prime Minister's spokesperson said.
"Queensland Health will undertake the appropriate contact tracing."
Earlier on Friday, Mr Morrison met with state and territory leaders to assess Australia's response to the spread of coronavirus.
Mr Dutton missed his usual Friday morning appearance on commercial TV, at the time being described as having a "stomach bug".
On Monday, he opened a new Moreton Bay campus for the University of the Sunshine Coast, alongside Education Minister Dan Tehan and former defence chief Angus Houston.
Mr Dutton met with United States Attorney-General William Barr and US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka while in Washington DC last week.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has gone into 14-day isolation after his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, tested positive for coronavirus.
Topics: government-and-politics, sport, infectious-diseases-other, diseases-and-disorders, health, federal-parliament, federal-government, federal---state-issues, respiratory-diseases, australia
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