US President Donald Trump has undergone the test for coronavirus and tested negative, said the president’s personal physician Saturday night after Trump revealed that he too had undergone the test and his temperature was “totally normal.”
The coronavirus has already infected more than 2,200 people in the US and caused 50 deaths. Trump, 73, has come under radar ever since he met with at least three visitors from Brazil who have since tested positive for COVID-19. Due to the exposure by Trump to many visitors and aides, the White House has begun conducting temperature checks on all visitors, including reporters who attend White House briefing. On Saturday, one reporter with high temperature was not allowed.
Ignoring the advice to shun handshake, Trump said, “It almost becomes a habit. People come up to me, they shake hands, they put their hand out, it’s sort of a natural reflex. We’re all getting out of it. All of us have that problem.” However, he quickly said, “Shaking hands is not a great thing to be doing right now, I agree.”
The Brazilian Embassy in Washington DC said late Friday that the country’s chargé d’affaires, Nestor Forster, tested positive after sitting at Trump’s dinner table last week while a top aide to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who took a photo with Trump and another person who attended a campaign fundraiser with the president too found to be affected with the novel coronavirus
White House said its occupants don’t need to be tested or isolate themselves unless the symptoms appear while experts insist that the virus can be spread even by people who are asymptomatic. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines include washing hands regularly and keeping a distance of at least 1.5-meter distance from people.
Meanwhile, Trump has extended the new travel ban to Britain, bringing the total number of US travel-restricted countries in Europe to 28.