President Trump has not been tested for coronavirus, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Monday night in a statement.
“The President has not received COVID-19 testing because he has neither had prolonged close contact with any known confirmed COVID-19 patients, nor does he have any symptoms,” Grisham said. She added that Mr. Trump “remains in excellent health, and his physician will continue to closely monitor him.”
Grisham also cited CDC guidelines that say testing decisions should be based on symptoms and exposure history.
Four GOP members of Congress — Senator Ted Cruz and Congressmen Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar and Doug Collins — are quarantining themselves after learning they had contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19, or coronavirus, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) outside Washington last month.
Two of them had some exposure to Mr. Trump after the conference. Gaetz traveled on Air Force One with the president to Washington from Florida Monday. His office has said he isn’t experiencing any symptoms and expects to receive the results of a COVID-19 test soon.
Collins shook hands with Mr. Trump last week and visited the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta with him.
Larry Kudlow, the chairman of the president’s council of economic advisers, and Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, will be going to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet with Republican lawmakers about economic measures the government could take to provide relief to those impacted by coronavirus. They’re expected to discuss a payroll tax cut, aid for hourly wage earners to help them avoid lost wages, small business loans, and aid for the airline, cruise and hotel industries, which are suffering losses over fear about the spread of coronavirus.
