Two cafeterias used by White House staff members were closed and contacts were tracked after an employee tested positive for the coronavirus, a Trump administration official said Wednesday night.
Cafeterias are located in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and the new Executive Office Building, which are part of the White House complex and are adjacent to the West Wing.
It was not immediately clear if the employee was a cafeteria worker, and the White House did not say what kind of symptoms the person was displaying.
The White House notified employees of the measures in an email and said they did not need to be quarantined, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the situation.
Staff members were advised to monitor the symptoms of the virus and told to stay home if they felt sick, the official said.
The development came just hours after President Trump spoke at the White House daily briefing on the pandemic, which his administration resumed this week. Trump’s job approval ratings have plummeted amid a surge in new cases across the South and West.
After months of resisting calls for him to recommend that Americans wear masks, Trump finally did so this week. The President also acknowledged that the pandemic is likely to worsen before it improves.
Mr. Trump and members of his administration are regularly screened for the virus, as are accredited journalists covering the White House. But it was not immediately clear what testing protocols were in place for employees in the executive office buildings in the complex.
Despite stringent precautionary measures, the Trump administration has been unable to keep the virus at bay.
In May, a military aide who had contact with Mr. Trump tested positive for the virus, as did Katie Miller, press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence.
This month, Mr. Pence postponed a planned trip to Arizona after Secret Service agents set out to travel with him who tested positive for or had symptoms of the coronavirus. And also this month, Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former Fox News commentator who is dating Donald Trump Jr., contracted the virus.
