Trump tests negative for coronavirus, White House checks visitors for fever
President Donald Trump has tested negative for the coronavirus and “remains symptom-free,” according to a memo from his doctor released Saturday night by the White House.
“Last night after an in-depth discussion with the president regarding COVID-19 testing, he elected to proceed,” said the memo from Dr. Sean P. Conley to White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham. “This evening I received confirmation that the test is negative.”
Trump had announced during a media briefing earlier Saturday that he had been tested, although an earlier letter from Conley released by the White House late Friday said he did not need to because he was not showing symptoms.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke to reporters after a Saturday morning meeting of the Coronavirus Task Force.
Also during the briefing, Pence said that a travel ban will be expanded to include the United Kingdom and Ireland starting Monday. Earlier this week, Trump announced the 30-day ban on travel from much of Europe to the United States. He initially exempted the U.K.
Conley’s Friday letter said Trump did not need to be tested after shaking hands and taking a photograph with a Brazilian official who later tested positive. The letter noted that another individual who sat at Trump’s table during a dinner last weekend also tested positive.
“The interactions would be categorized as LOW risk for transmission,” Conley’s letter said, “as such, there is no indication for home quarantine at this time.”
Trump and administration officials had drawn criticism after a Friday news conference for repeatedly shaking hands and touching microphones used by various speakers. The president said Saturday that shaking hands is a force of habit.
“Shaking hands is not a great thing to be doing right now, I agree,” he told reporters. “Maybe people shouldn’t be shaking hands for the long term, because it does transmit flu and other things,” he added.
Reporters in the White House for Saturday’s briefing had their temperatures taken before they were allowed into the briefing room. A fever is a symptom of the COVID-19 disease, along with coughing and shortness of breath.
“Out of an abundance of caution, temperature checks are now being performed on any individuals who are in close contact with the President and Vice President,” Judd Deere, deputy White House press secretary, said in a statement.
Trump said that he, too, had his temperature taken. It was “totally normal,” he said as he left the briefing.
“If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have been here,” he said.
Members of his Cabinet who attended the briefing, including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, said they also had their temperatures taken. Pence referred questions about the new practice to the White House physician’s office.
One journalist with a temperature above 100 degrees was turned away, Katie Miller, the vice president’s press secretary, said on Twitter.
“One week after having dinner with the Brazilian delegation in Mar-a-Lago, the president remains symptom-free,” Conley said in the letter released Saturday. “I have been in daily contact with the CDC and White House Coronavirus Task Force, and we are encouraging the implementation of all their best practices for exposure reduction and transmission mitigation.”
More than 150,000 people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus and nearly 5,800 had died as of Saturday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had more than 2,500 confirmed cases and 51 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
The president declared a national emergency at the Friday news conference. Trump also said Google is developing a website “very quickly” that will help visitors to the site assess their symptoms and direct them to the nearest coronavirus testing location, if a test is warranted.
In a statement after Trump’s announcement, Google said that Verily, a division of Google parent company Alphabet, “is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time.”
Asked about the discrepancy between Google’s statement and the president’s on Saturday, Pence said that more information on testing would be available Sunday.
“The objective here is to have a website up very quickly — that, first, people in the areas that have been deeply impacted — Washington state, California, New York. Now we’ve seen community spread in Massachusetts and also Florida,” he said. “And so we want to make sure that we’re flowing those resources and as well as those remote testing sites in that area.”
Coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said at the briefing that one of challenges the government faces is that a negative test means only that a person did not have the coronavirus on that day. A person could test negative one day and test positive the next day, and that is why it is important to remain vigilant, she said.
“If we are complacent, selfish, uninformed, if we spread fear and distrust and misinformation, this situation will last longer and more people will be hurt,” Surgeon General Jerome Adams said.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Trump announced a deal on a coronavirus relief bill on Friday that will help workers and families who have been affected by the spread of the virus. The House passed the bill 363-40 early Saturday. It must pass the Senate before it can become law.
The measure expands free COVID-19 testing and provides paid sick and family leave benefits and emergency food assistance.
“If you’re an hourly wage earner in America, you need not be concerned about staying home. If you’re sick, stay home. You’re not going to miss a paycheck,” Pence said Saturday. “Because of this legislation moving through the Congress, we’ll make sure that your employer, including small businesses, have the ability to provide paid leave to you.”
In a letter to Democrats before the bill passed the House, Pelosi said, “This legislation is about testing, testing, testing. To stop the spread of the virus, we have secured free coronavirus testing for everyone who needs a test, including the uninsured. We cannot fight coronavirus effectively unless everyone in our country who needs to be tested can get their test free of charge.”
The World Health Organization has declared the COVID-19 disease a global pandemic.
Events across the nation have been canceled or postponed as a result of the outbreak, including many professional sports and the March Madness college basketball tournament.
Theme parks have closed and cruise companies are no longer making outbound voyages. Mnuchin said Saturday that he will be working with Congress to provide immediate relief to airline, cruise and hotel companies. He did not preview the actions that are under discussion.
“I use the analogy of, we’re in a baseball game, and we’re in the early innings. We have 100 different things that we’re looking at,” he said at the briefing. “And whatever we need to do, we will do.”
This story was originally published March 14, 2020 at 9:19 AM with the headline "Trump tests negative for coronavirus, White House checks visitors for fever."
