Peter Dutton is in quarantine at his Queensland home and his family has temporarily moved out after the federal minister was diagnosed with coronavirus and briefly hospitalized.
“I’m feeling much better,” the Home Affairs minister told Nine’s Today show on Tuesday.
Dutton tested positive to COVID-19 after waking up on Friday morning with a temperature and a sore throat and was taken to hospital and placed in isolation.
The minister, who was released on Monday to his home in Brisbane, said the hospital needed his bed for someone else.
“I only had a mild case,” he said.
Dutton said he had no idea how or where he picked up the virus but believes it was in the US where he had been attending meetings.
“But I was pretty, you know, pretty militant about the hand sanitiser,” he added.
Dutton was at home with his wife and children in the days before he was diagnosed.
“They haven’t yet shown any symptoms, thank God. None of my friends, close friends have that we have spent time with over that time have time either. None of my staff.”
COVID-19 has killed more than 6600 people and infected more than 168,000 across the world. Five Australians are amongst the dead.
Dutton was the first federal MP to test positive to coronavirus.
The second is Queensland Nationals senator Susan McDonald, whose test came back positive on Monday after she experienced a sore throat and a temperature.
She remains in hospital in Queensland.
There are now more than 360 confirmed cases of coronavirus across Australia.
