Another Trump apparently got tested for the Coronavirus and was cleared this week. After spending some time in self-isolation thanks to her interaction about two weeks ago with Australian home minister Peter Dutton, who has tested positive for the Coronavirus, the president’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump got test results back this Friday that confirmed she did not have the disease. Subsequently, she has returned to working at the White House, where she’s already stood in on an afternoon press conference about the administration’s virus response.
Ivanka Trump, who has spent the last several days at home, was tested for coronavirus last week and got a negative result. She's now back at work and will attend Trump's meeting with small business owners. (She met with a senior Australian official who later tested positive.)
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) March 20, 2020
Ivanka had been working from home for about a week. Now, a senior administration official says:
‘Over the last week, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump has followed social distancing best practices at her home. At the advisement of her doctors, due to lack of symptoms and consistently healthy physician checks, Advisor Trump will be working from the White House today. As is done with every employee at the White House, she will undergo the same health/temperature checks to maintain the safety of herself, her children and those in the White House.’
Paid leave was objected to by some business leaders, but with Ivanka Trump working on it, the White House dug in, per people briefed. Dems, meanwhile, preferred that outcome. https://t.co/VThD2F2DhM
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 20, 2020
Those health checks have even been conducted on some White House reporters before they’ve entered the briefing rooms for the now repeated, almost-daily press conferences about the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak and the government’s response.
After his own repeated interactions with individuals like an aide to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who tested positive for the Coronavirus, President Trump himself finally got tested recently, and he too tested negative. Others in his orbit haven’t been so lucky — Francis Suarez, the mayor of Miami, Florida, tested positive for the virus after interacting with that same Brazilian delegation, who stopped at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort during their time in the U.S. Senators including Rick Scott (R-Fl.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) isolated themselves out of an abundance of caution after similar interactions.
Others who isolated themselves include Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar (R) following interaction with an individual at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) who eventually tested positive for the Coronavirus. At least two members of Congress have already been confirmed to have contracted the Coronavirus, including Florida Republican Mario Diaz-Balart and Utah Democrat Ben McAdams. The virus is continuing to spread more rapidly across the U.S. in general — the country’s overall total stands at over 16,500 cases and 225 deaths and counting.
What's happening in Italy right now is kinda freaking me out. Hoping hoping hoping this is all lagging indicators and they're get over the hump soon, but my god.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) March 20, 2020
As a potential harbinger of things to come, Italy — where the virus progression started slightly ahead of the U.S. — has yet to see any significant slowdown in cases. The opposite has been happening: this Friday, they reported their largest single-day increase in deaths at any point during this crisis. The country has suffered more than 4,000 deaths from the virus, and they’ve faced more than 47,000 cases overall. Jurisdictions across the U.S. have been gearing up for similarly wide outbreaks. In the New York City area alone, thousands of cases have been reported, and the health care system is threatened to be overwhelmed, and this Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) has ordered 100 percent of the state’s non-essential workforce to stay home.
