Donald Trump and his wife Melania have tested positive for coronavirus.
In a tweet, the president said: “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!”
This comes after the President announced earlier that he and the US first lady are in quarantine after one of his closest aides,Hope Hicks, tested positive for coronavirus.
The 31-year-old adviser to the president is the closest aide to Mr Trump to test positive so far. She travelled with him on Air Force One to a TV debate in Ohio earlier and was pictured getting off the presidential jet in Cleveland without a mask.
She was in even closer proximity to him aboard the presidential helicopter Marine One when the president held a rally in Minnesota on 30th September.
Mr Trump tweeted, “Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19. Terrible!
“The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!”
It is not clear how the quarantine will affect arrangements for the second presidential debate, which is scheduled for 15 October in Miami, Florida.
During a phone call with Fox News host, Mr Trump said he and Mrs Trump “spend a lot of time with Hope”.
“So we’ll see what happens,” said the president, adding that Ms Hicks often wore masks but had still tested positive.
Mr Trump mostly spurns mask-wearing and is often pictured not socially distanced with aides or others during official engagements.
According to Bloomberg News, Ms Hicks is experiencing symptoms of the disease, and was quarantined on Air Force One on the trip back from Minnesota.
Asked about Hicks, White House spokesman, Judd Deere said: “The president takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously.”
He added that the White House takes care to follow procedures “for limiting COVID-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible both on complex and when the president is travelling.”
Ms Hicks is the latest White House aide to contract Covid-19. Vice-President Mike Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller tested positive in May and recovered.
That same month, a member of the US Navy who was serving as one of Mr Trump’s personal valets tested positive for coronavirus.
National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, a number of Secret Service agents, a Marine One pilot and a White House cafeteria worker have also tested positive.
But the White House said neither the president nor vice-president were affected.
Ms Hicks joined the Trump Organization in 2014 and the president brought her on to his campaign team a year later, despite her lack of political experience
She was a campaign spokeswoman during Mr Trump’s candidacy before becoming communications director in his White House.
She stepped down in March 2018 to become chief communications officer at Rupert Murdoch’s Fox, before returning to the White House in February, 2020.
The coronavirus has infected more than 7.2 million Americans, killing more than 200,000 of them.
The White House tests aides and anyone else who comes into contact with the president daily.
