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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has tested negative for COVID-19 and is not infectious to others, the White House physician said on Monday (October 12), 10 days after Trump announced that had contracted the coronavirus.
In a memo released by the White House just hours before Trump resumed campaign rallies, Dr. Sean Conley said the president had tested negative on consecutive days using an Abbott Laboratories BinaxNOW antigen card.
Conley said the negative tests and other clinical and laboratory data “indicate a lack of detectable viral replication.”
Trump’s medical team had determined that, according to data and guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “The president is not contagious to others,” Conley said.
Trump returns to the election campaign Monday night with a rally in Sanford, Florida, the first since he revealed on Oct. 2 that he tested positive for COVID-19.
LEE: Trump says he is ‘immune’ to COVID-19
Democratic rival Joe Biden also tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday, his campaign said in a statement. The former vice president has tested negative multiple times since Trump announced his positive test.
Trump, 74, seeks to change the dynamics of a career that national opinion polls and some state polls show he is losing to Biden, who is 77 years old.
Biden made further progress in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, gaining momentum in two states Trump won in the 2016 presidential election, Reuters / Ipsos opinion polls showed on Monday.
Polls, conducted Tuesday through Sunday, showed that Biden now leads Trump by 7 percentage points in both states.
Building on his momentum and growing lead in the polls, Biden campaigned Monday in Ohio, where he was once considered a long shot, as he tries to expand his reach into Republican-leaning states.
Speaking to unionized auto workers in Toledo, Biden said that he and former President Barack Obama played a key role in keeping the American auto industry afloat during the financial crisis and recession more than a decade ago.
“Barack and I bet on you and the American worker and it paid off,” said Biden, who hopes to undermine what polls show is Trump’s greatest strength, the view among some voters that the former real estate entrepreneur is better managing the economy. .
Former Vice President of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati on Oct. 12, 2020 (Photo: AP / Carolyn Kaster).
Biden also appeared at a voting event in Cincinnati. It was Biden’s second campaign trip in as many weeks to Ohio, once thought out of reach, but where polls now show a competitive run.
Trump won the state by 8 percentage points four years ago and almost certainly must win it back to win reelection. No Republican has won the White House without taking Ohio.
For months, Trump had worked furiously to divert public attention from the virus and his handling of the pandemic, which has infected more than 7.8 million people in the United States, killed more than 214,000 and left millions out of work. .
His own illness has put the spotlight squarely on his response to the coronavirus during the final leg of the race, with Biden’s campaign increasing its attacks and spreading his campaign to states that normally lean toward the Republicans.
FLORIDA IN WORK
Trump’s rally in Florida, and planned rallies in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Iowa on Wednesday and North Carolina on Thursday, will be watched closely to see if the president has reshaped his campaign approach since contracting the virus.
“It’s been like a racehorse that has stayed at the starting gate for too long,” Trump’s senior campaign adviser Steve Cortes told Fox News. “That horse is ready to gallop.”
READ: COVID-19 Expert Fauci Says Trump Campaign Ad Should Be Removed
The most recent polls in Florida, where a defeat of Trump would drastically reduce his path to re-election, show Biden with a slight lead. Trump won Florida in 2016 by just 1.2 percentage points.
Critics blame Trump for failing to encourage supporters at campaign events, and even White House staff, to wear protective masks and adhere to social distancing guidelines. At least 11 close Trump advisers have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Trump told Fox News on Sunday that he felt fine and, without presenting evidence, that he was now immune, a claim that attracted a Twitter flag for violating the social media platform’s rules on misleading information related to COVID-19.
Scientific research has not been conclusive on how long people who have recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies and are protected from a second infection.
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