French President Emmanuel Macron is set to end his quaratine after showing no more symptoms of Covid-19, the Élysée Palace said on Wednesday.
Macron spent seven days in self-isolation after testing positive for the virus last Thursday and showing symptoms of fatigue, coughing and muscle aches.
His positive test on December 17 prompted a track-and-trace effort across Europe following numerous meetings between the French leader and EU heads of government.
During his quarantine, Macron ran meetings remotely from the presidential retreat of La Lanterne, close to the Palace of Versailles.
The French authorities are concerned that the holiday period could see a new spike in infections, after the country's total Covid-19 death toll went above 60,000 last week.
Authorities said late Tuesday that nearly 12,000 new cases had been reported in the previous 24 hours, and 386 deaths.
A vaccination campaign is to start on Sunday, with health workers and older people among the first to get Covid-19 shots, the government said.
The EU gave the green light for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Monday, paving the way for the first inoculations to start across 27 countries soon after Christmas.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
