US President Donald Trump said Thursday evening that he was awaiting results from a test for Covid-19 after one of his close advisers tested positive for the disease.
Trump added that he will quarantine as he awaits Covid-19 test results.
Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19. Terrible! The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
Trump's close aid Hope Hicks tested positive, the President confirmed to Fox News.
"I just went for a test and we'll see what happens," he said, saying he expected the results Thursday night or Friday.
Hicks travels regularly with the president on Air Force One and, along with other senior aides, accompanied him to Ohio for the presidential debate on Tuesday and to Minnesota for a campaign event on Wednesday.
Trump has come under sharp criticism for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 200,000 people in the United States alone. The president has touted his management of the crisis.
He and his staff regularly do not wear masks, and Trump has denigrated people who wear them regularly. Health professionals say mask-wearing is one of the key things people can do to help prevent the spread of the virus.
At the White House, people who are around Trump, including some reporters, get tested on a regular basis. But the White House did away with regular temperature checks for everyone who enters the complex months ago and people who are tested for the virus interact with others on the White House campus who are not.
There is no one closer to Trump than Hicks, who returned to the White House this year after leaving her position as communications director in 2018. She has overseen significant aspects of the president’s daily schedule, and she works closely with Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
Vice President Mike Pence's spokeswoman, Katie Miller, tested positive for the virus earlier this year and suffered from symptoms before recovering.
The White House said in a statement that Trump "takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously" and that it followed guidelines for limiting Covid-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible.
Bloomberg News first reported that Hicks had tested positive for the virus.
Hicks returned to the White House earlier this year after a stint in the private sector. She served previously as White House communications director and as a spokeswoman for Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
Hicks was one of the few White House senior aides seen sporadically wearing masks in meetings, according to her colleagues. But she also has been photographed around Trump without one.
Two people briefed on the fallout of Hicks’ positive diagnosis said that several White House officials were going to be required to quarantine after coming into contact with her. But at least one person who had been around Hicks, the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, held a news briefing at the White House on Thursday morning.
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