White House press secretary tests positive for Covid-19



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White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Monday that she tested positive for Covid-19, adding that she would begin to self-quarantine and that the White House medical unit does not list any members of the press as contacts. close.

“Also, I was definitely unaware of Hope Hicks’ diagnosis prior to holding a press conference at the White House on Thursday,” McEnany said in a statement, referring to the adviser to President Donald Trump whose positive results were revealed last Thursday hours. before Mr. Trump announced that he and his wife had also contracted the coronavirus.

On Monday, Trump began a fourth day at the military hospital where he is being treated for Covid-19.

The president’s team is treating Trump (74) with a steroid, dexmethasone, which is normally used only in the most severe cases. However, his medical team told reporters Sunday that Trump could return to the White House on Monday.

Even if he does, he will have to continue treatment, as the Republican president is still undergoing a five-day course of an intravenous antiviral drug, remdesivir. The normal quarantine period for anyone who tests positive for coronavirus is 14 days.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Monday reiterated hope that Trump will soon be released from the hospital.

“He will meet with his doctors and nurses this morning to do further evaluations of his progress,” Meadows told Fox News.

“We are still optimistic that he will be able to return to the White House later today.”

Kidnapped at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington since Friday, Trump has posted a series of videos in an effort to reassure the public that he is recovering from an illness caused by a new coronavirus that has infected 7, 4 million Americans and has killed more than 209,000.

On Sunday, he also left his hospital room to ride in a White House caravan that drove him along with supporters gathered outside the hospital.

Dressed in a suit jacket, shirt but no tie and a black mask, it marked Trump’s first in-person public appearance since Friday. Critics and medical experts criticized Trump for the measure, which potentially exposed his car personnel to infections.

On Monday, his Twitter account posted a series of more than a dozen messages, including “LAW AND ORDER. VOTE! “And” RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. VOTE! ”

Trump spent much of the year minimizing the risks of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected 7.4 million Americans, killed more than 209,000 and triggered an economic recession that has left millions out of work.

Trump is under fire for leaving the hospital on Sunday, as well as for his statement that he met with soldiers and first responders at the hospital – moves that potentially expose more people to the virus.

“Every person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary presidential ‘step’ now has to be quarantined for 14 days,” said James Phillips, who is also an assistant professor of emergency medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington. Twitter

“They can get sick. They may die. For the political theater ”.

CNN quoted a White House official as saying that his wife, Melania, who also tested positive for Covid-19, is not considering leaving the White House.

“Melania Trump is aware of the dangers of Covid-19. Potentially exposing others is not a risk that she would take, ”the official said.

Health officials in New Jersey said they were trying to locate more than 200 people who attended a Trump fundraising event at his golf course Thursday.

Trump traveled to the event after close adviser Hope Hicks contracted the virus, and a few hours earlier announced that she had tested positive.

McEnany said on Fox News that Trump tested positive after that fundraiser, not before. – Reuters

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