Germany has had a lower COVID-19 infection rate than many other European countries, notes MSN. But that's not to say that it hasn't still been a severe problem in Germany. And like many other places in the world, cases seem to be spiking there again recently.

Jens Spahn is the country's top health official. Young and popular with the public, he's been considered a strong contender to one day become chancellor.

But right now, he has more immediate matters to deal with.

Diagnosed with COVID-19

Spahn, Germany's health minister, has joined the country's citizens' list to have contracted the novel Coronavirus. According to Deutsche Welle, he had begun to suffer from COVID-19 symptoms.

Those with who Spahn had recently been in contact with were alerted. This includes much of the German Cabinet. On October 21, he was present at a Cabinet meeting. And apparently, later the same day began feeling worryingly sick. Attendees at such meetings are required to adhere to strict sanitary and social distancing rules.

So, in theory, it's possible that the others might not have caught the virus from Spahn. But it's as of yet not known for certain.

Beginning immediately, Spahn has gone into quarantine. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Labour and Social Affairs Minister Hubertus Heil are also in isolation. Each had been exposed to people who'd test positive for the coronavirus. At least so far, neither Steinmeier nor Heil has reportedly tested positive.

Chancellor Angela Merkel was among the well-wishers for Spahn's recovery. So were Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. Spahn and Merkel are both members of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany.

Spahn has been in politics since he was a teenager

Jens Spahn first became an Ahaus City Council member in northwestern Germany when he was 19 years old. He wasn't much more than 20 years old when he was first elected to the Bundestag. One of the two houses of Germany's federal legislature.

Spahn has been re-elected to the Bundestag four times since then. Since 2005, the Christian Democratic Union has been the senior partner of successive governing coalitions. Spahn has taken on a number of rules along the way.

In 2015, he was promoted to the role of parliamentary secretary of state. Spahn's duties pertained to the Federal Ministry of Finance, serving under Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble.

His assignments included overseeing Germany's budget and representing the country in European Union budget negotiations.

Spahn was promoted again in 2018. It was then that Merkel named him the new health minister.