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Trump, Melania start quarantine process after top aide Hope Hicks tests positive for Covid-19
“Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19,” Trump tweeted.
US President Donald Trump said late Thursday he and first lady Melania Trump will “begin our quarantine process” after Hope Hicks, one of his closest advisers, tested positive for Covid-19.
Hicks, who became the newest White House staffer to test positive, had travelled with Trump several times in the last few days.
“Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19,” President Trump tweeted. “Terrible! The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!”
Hicks had travelled with Trump and his team on Air Force One to Cleveland, Ohio for the first presidential debate. She also travelled with Trump to his rally in Duluth, Minnesota, on Wednesday and was seen in close contact with senior members of the president’s campaign.
According to rules made by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people who were in close contact with Hicks should quarantine themselves. That would include the president, the first lady and senior members of the president’s re-election campaign.
Bloomberg, which first reported Hicks testing positive, said she had felt ill in Minnesota and quarantined herself on the way back on the presidential aircraft.
“The president takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously,” White House spokesman Judd Deere has said in a statement. “White House Operations collaborates with the physician to the president and the White House Military Office to ensure all plans and procedures incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting Covid-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible, both on complex and when the president is travelling.”
Hicks is the fourth White House personnel to test positive for Coronavirus, after a personal military valet of the president, a member of the vice-president’s staff and the National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien. But Hicks has been the closest of them all to the president, who had gone on a 10-day course of Hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug.
