Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has been admitted to hospital after testing positive for COVID-19.
A statement from Mahathir’s office said he had been confirmed to have the virus on Wednesday morning and had been admitted to the National Heart Institute “for observation for the next few days as advised by the medical team” but did not go into detail.
The 97-year-old has a history of heart problems and spent an extended period in hospital in late January.
He has been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Mahathir has twice been Malaysia’s prime minister — first from 1981 until 2003, and again in May 2018 when the opposition coalition he joined amid the multibillion-dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB was swept into power. He resigned two years later after an internal power struggle led to the coalition’s collapse.
