Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is fully vaccinated, tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday while in Glasgow, Scotland, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The mayor is attending the conference with about seven staff members, all of whom tested negative.
“Mayor Garcetti tested positive for COVID-19 earlier today. He is feeling good and isolating in his hotel room,” according to an announcement on the mayor’s Twitter account.
In accordance with the UN’s guidelines for the conference, Garcetti conducted self-administered nasal swab tests frequently throughout the trip and tested negative, including receiving negative results twice on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the mayor and his staff took PCR tests to get back into the United States, and Garcetti’s positive test result was received on Wednesday.
The mayor’s team was figuring out what will happen next as Garcetti isolates in Glasgow. Garcetti had been scheduled to return to the United States on Thursday.
Garcetti’s scheduled attendance at a Wednesday New York Times panel discussion on urban challenges and solutions to combating the climate crisis was canceled.
On Monday, the mayor announced in front of heads of state that C40 Cities, a climate coalition of 97 cities — which Garcetti chairs — received pledges from more than 1,000 cities and local governments to join the coalition’s Race to Zero.
The mayor has spent the last couple of days with the C40 delegation, which includes mayors from 12 international cities within the coalition, including mayors of Athens, Phoenix, Paris, North Dhaka, Oslo, Freetown, Stockholm and Seattle.
Garcetti and the rest of the delegation took a 4.5-hour train ride together from London’s Euston Station to Glasgow’s Central Station on Monday.
In Glasgow, Garcetti was in close contact with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who was named to succeed Garcetti as chair of C40 Cities, as well as former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is serving as UN Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions and Global Ambassador for the Race to Zero and Race To Resilience campaigns.