US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he and his wife Melania have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for Covid-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this together,” he said in a tweet.
The next course of action for the President and the First Lady was not immediately clear as he has events scheduled for Friday in Florida and Saturday in Wisconsin.
The announcement came after White House adviser Hope Hicks, one of Trump’s closest aide, was confirmed to have tested positive for the virus on Thursday.
She had travelled with the President on Air Force One earlier this week, an informed source told The Hill news website.
After the revelation, Trump had tweeted: “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.”
Also in a statement, a White House official said contact tracing has been done, “and the appropriate notifications and recommendations have been made”, The Hill news website reported.
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.