White House requires staff to wear masks after two test positive for Covid-19
'I have felt no vulnerability whatsoever,' Trump said, later telling reporters that he was the one behind the mask requirement.
The White House is now requiring all staffers to wear masks in the West Wing days after at least two people close to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for Covid-19.
Monday’s order came via a memo sent to White House staff following the news of positive Covid-19 tests for Pence’s spokesperson, Katie Miller, and Trump’s personal valet. According to two sources close to the matter, aides are also being asked to avoid the West Wing ‘unless you absolutely need to conduct in-person business.’
Secret service members close to President Donald Trump have also started wearing masks and visitors are being asked additional questions, regarding whether they have been experiencing coronavirus symptoms, before they enter the White House grounds. These additional screenings reportedly include temperature checks.
However, even now that the virus has infiltrated the White House, Donald Trump still gave remarks on Monday without a mask and downplayed the news of the positive tests.
‘We have a lot of people in the White House and we had one, basically, we had one person…this building is shocking if you looked at the numbers,’ Trump said.
‘Also tremendous numbers of people coming in. Normally you wouldn’t do that, but because we’re running a country, we want to keep our country running, so we have a lot of people coming in and out.’
Trump went on to say that ‘most’ people are tested for Covid-19 when they enter the White House and ‘everybody’ who enters the president’s office is tested.
‘I have felt no vulnerability whatsoever,’ Trump said, later telling reporters that he was the one behind the mask requirement.
Despite Miller’s positive test, Pence’s office said he does not plan to self-isolate.
‘Vice-President Pence has tested negative every single day and plans to be at the White House tomorrow,’ said Devin O’Malley, a backup spokesman for Pence.
However, three top members of the White House coronavirus task force have gone into isolation – Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Stephen Hahn commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration and Dr Robert Redfield, director of the CDC.