ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was transferred to Germany for specialist medical treatment Wednesday, a day after his country announced he had been hospitalised but not the reason.

Several senior officials in the 75-year-old president’s entourage developed COVID-19 symptoms on Saturday, and the president was placed in what the government called “voluntary preventive confinement”. It was not clear if Tebboune’s current hospitalisation was connected.

The transfer to Germany was made at the request of the presidency staff, according to a press release from the presidency broadcast on national television Wednesday.

The statement announcing the Algerian leader’s hospitalisation on Tuesday said his condition was stable. It did not reveal the cause of his illness or say when the hospitalisation began.

The statement said that while Tebboune was admitted to a specialised care unit in Algiers on the recommendation of his doctors, “the state of health of the president of the republic…does not inspire any concern”.