Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Aug. 10. | POOL / VIA AFP-JIJI

Kishida, who is now resting at his official residence, started experiencing mild symptoms such as a slight fever and cough from Saturday night and took a PCR test on Sunday morning, which confirmed the positive result in the afternoon, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

The 65-year-old Japanese leader was was forced to cancel a planned trip to Tunisia to attend a key conference on African development, a source said Sunday.

Kishida, who has just returned from a weeklong vacation, will work from his residence from Monday and will join the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) online, the source said, asking not to be identified because he is not authorised to talk to the media.

The eighth TICAD and the first since 2019 is being co-hosted with the United Nations, the World Bank, and the African Union Commission. Among discussion on measures to bolster development, the gathering will look at ways to help the continent tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the government’s top spokesman, tested positive for the virus. Earlier that month, ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Taro Kono also tested positive.

Coronavirus infections in the country have remained near record highs, with 24,780 COVID-19 cases reported in Tokyo alone on Sunday. That’s forcing politicians and health care officials to reconsider what steps, if any, are needed to contain the outbreak.

Japan has endured a record resurgence in coronavirus infections, hitting businesses in the world’s third-biggest economy, although deaths remain relatively low and the disruptions have been milder than in some other advanced economies.

The same conundrum is facing countries across the globe, as the arrival of more infectious omicron subvariants has led to higher infection rates even as testing in most areas is on the decline.