Washington: US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania have both tested positive for coronavirus.
Announcing this via social media on Friday, Donald Trump announced that he and Melania will go into quarantine immediately.
“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” Donald Trump posted on Twitter.
The next course of action for the President and First Lady Melania Trump was not immediately clear as Donald Trump is scheduled to address an election debate on Friday in Florida and in Wisconsin on Saturday.
Earlier, White House adviser Hope Hicks, one of Donald Trump’s closest aides, was confirmed to have tested positive for coronaviruis.
She had traveled with the President on Air Force One earlier this week, an informed source told The Hill news website.
“Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19. Terrible,” Trump had tweeted in support of Hicks.
“The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process.”
The Hill news website quoted a White House official as saying that contact tracing has been carried out “and the appropriate notifications and recommendations have been made.”
Deputy press secretary Judd Deere announced in a statement that the US administration with take steps to limit COVID-19 exposure within the White House complex.
“The President takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously,” Judd the statement said.
“White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to the President and the White House Military Office to ensure all plans and procedures incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting COVID-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible both on complex and when the President is traveling,” the statement added.
Hicks is the latest White House aide to test positive for the virus which has so far infected 7,277,352 people in the US and killed 207,791 others, making it the worst-hit country in the world.
National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien had tested positive, as well as a White House valet who serves the President.
Katie Miller, the Vice President’s communications director and the wife of Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller, were also infected.
