Mexican president's spokesman tests positive for coronavirus

The spokesman for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, the same day the country detected a case of a COVID-19 variant that is spreading in the United Kingdom.

Spokesman Jesús Ramírez Cuevas wrote on his Twitter account, “I am in good health and I will be working from home.” There was no word on whether the president had been tested.

Ramírez Cuevas is close to López Obrador, often handing him documents or going on trips with the president.

López Obrador is 67 and has high blood pressure, but almost never wears a mask.

On Sunday, López Obrador toured the Pacific coast seaport of Manzanillo and gave a speech, as usual without a mask on.

Also on Sunday, health authorities in the northern border state of Tamaulipas detected a case of the U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7. That strain has also been found in the United States, Canada, Italy, India and the United Arab Emirates.

Scientists in the U.K. have said the variant may be more contagious than previously identified strains.

The Tamaulipas state health department said the case was detected in a 56-year-old man who arrived on Dec. 29 at an airport in the border city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, aboard a flight from Mexico City. No one else on the flight tested positive.