USA / Will begin quarantine process: Trump as close aide tests COVID-19 +ve

Washington: US President Donald Trump said late Thursday he would go into quarantine after a top aide tested positive for coronavirus, in a shock development that threatened to disrupt his scheduled public appearances in the crucial final weeks of the election campaign. Hope Hicks, one of his closest aides, tested positive for Covid-19.

“She did test positive. I just heard about this," Trump said in an interview Thursday night on Fox News, about two hours after Bloomberg News first reported Hicks’s positive test.

Later, in a tweet, the president said that he and First Lady Melania Trump had been tested for the virus and were waiting on the results. “In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!"

Trump did not say how long he was planning to be in isolation -- he is regularly tested for the potentially deadly virus but the tests can yield false negative results.

It wasn't immediately clear whether he would canceling his Friday schedule of campaign events, which includes a rally in Florida.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people stay home and isolate for up to 14 days if they might have been exposed to the virus.

Hicks was traveling with Trump on Air Force One just this Tuesday to fly to Cleveland for the first presidential debate with Democrat Joe Biden.

The people asked not to be identified because Hicks’s infection had not been publicly announced until Trump’s interview. Messages left for Hicks were not immediately returned.

“I’ll get my test back either tonight or tomorrow morning," Trump said. He said he “was surprised" about Hicks’s infection, remarking that she often wears a mask. “She is a very warm person," he said.

He suggested that members of the military or law enforcement might pose a risk of infection to White House staff, including himself.

“You know, it’s very hard when you’re with soldiers, when you’re with airmen, you’re with Marines and police officers -- I’m with them so much -- that when they come over to you, it’s very hard to say, ‘stay back, stay back,’ you know," Trump said.

“It’s a tough kind of a situation. It’s a terrible thing," he said.

He added later in the interview that “people from the military or from law enforcement" approach him and his staff and “want to hug you and they want to kiss you because we really have done a good job for them."

“You get close and things happen," he said.