US President Donald Trump has tested positive for the corona virus, he reported Friday. In the week prior to the time the virus was diagnosed in him, he was still widely among people. It has now become known that several people in the Trump area have been tested positive.
Trump was tested after his advisor Hope Hicks tested positive. At first he said he did not yet know whether he would be quarantined as a precaution because of Hicks’ infections, but later said he was preparing for it anyway. The 74-year-old president went into isolation on Friday.
In addition to the president, his wife Melania was also tested positive. Trump and Melania said in an interview with Fox News that he and his wife had been in close contact with Hicks. For example, the adviser went on Tuesday evening in the presidential plane Air Force One to the debate between Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden. So it is possible that Hicks has infected other people in the Trump area.
Biden and Trump would have kept their distance from the debate on Tuesday evening. The Democratic presidential candidate was tested negative for the time being on Friday. His wife Jill, US Vice President Mike Pence, Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her husband also tested negative for the corona virus on Friday.
Multiple infections with nomination of chief justice
However, in addition to the debate in the run-up to the November 3 election, Trump also attended multiple campaign rallies last week, writes CNN. Last Saturday, Trump was also in the garden of the White House to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court. More than 150 people attended the meeting. Images show that there was little distance between the guests and that most people did not wear a mouth mask.
On Friday night, Trump’s former adviser, Kellyanne Conway known that she too has been tested positive for the corona virus. Conway attended Coney Barrett’s nomination. Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien, Republican Senators Thom Tillis and Mike Lee, University of Notre Dame President John Jenkins and Republican Party Chairman Ronna McDaniel also tested positive after the meeting. It is unclear whether they all became infected during the event and whether Trump was already infected at this point.
Although Hicks was the first to test positive last week, it is also difficult to determine which of the people in Trump’s environment was the first to carry the virus. According to the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), the incubation period, the time in which someone becomes infected and develops complaints, for the corona virus is between two and fourteen days. It is therefore possible that several people had already contracted the virus before the meeting.
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The nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court was kept very little distance and most people did not wear a face mask. (Photo: ANP)
Trump was taken to hospital ‘as a precaution’
Trump was transferred on Friday to Walter Reed military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, as a precaution. Doctors had recommended it so that the president can get proper care right away, should the need arise. Trump is said to have mild symptoms, including fatigue and a low-grade fever.
In a video message, Trump says he thinks he is doing well. Images from American media show that the president was able to walk to the presidential helicopter on his own.
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