The White House Correspondents Association announced that the reporter, whose identity is being kept under wraps over privacy concerns, tested positive Sunday. The reporter had been in the same room as Trump and top Florida officials, including Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Rick Scott, during a roundtable discussion at Pelican Golf Club, which is located in the Tampa Bay area.
Dozens of other journalists and photographers participating in the press pool may have also been exposed to the virus while covering event, where social distancing was said to be impossible to maintain.
“We’ve already reached out to those who were in the pools with this individual, and the White House Medical Unit is conducting additional contact tracing and providing follow-on tests for those in the pools and potentially exposed,” Zeke Miller, the association’s president, said in a statement.
Masks were worn by members of the press at the event, while Trump appeared to be mask-free. All of those attending the event, including the press, were said to have been tested prior to the president’s arrival.
It is unclear whether the tests were for current infections or for antibodies indicating possible immunity to the virus. Both past and present infections sometimes go undetected by tests, due to incubation periods as well the time it takes for antibodies to form in the body, along with the possibility of tests producing false negatives.
The virus has continued to rapidly spread through Florida, with many thousands of new cases being added each day to a total that is approaching half a million cases, the second most in the country behind only California.
Five people reportedly tested positive after taking part in a Florida Sheriff’s Association meeting attended by DeSantis on July 27. Several of the sheriffs who attended the event were said to have greeted Trump during his Tampa visit.
An email informed White House staff on Monday that they would be required to take part in “random mandatory Covid-19 testing,” according to Politico. Staffers are also reportedly tested every time they enter the building. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has said Trump is tested “multiple times a day,” while Trump himself has indicated that he is tested every two or three days.
Several with close ties to Trump have contracted the virus. Katie Miller, Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary and the wife of Trump’s top adviser Stephen Miller, tested positive in May. Others to test positive have included national security adviser Robert O’Brien, one of the president’s personal valets and Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.
