White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is the latest in President Donald Trump’s inner circle to test positive for COVID-19, bringing the known total number of people close to the president who have contracted the coronavirus to 10.
They include: First Lady Melania Trump, Hope Hicks, top Trump aide, Kellyanne Conway, Nicholas Luna, assistant to the president, former White House senior advisor, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey, Rev. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame University, and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
Three White House reporters and at least 11 people who worked the presidential debate in Cleveland on Sept. 29, have also tested positive for the virus.
McEnany claims that she had tested negative every day since learning of Hicks‘ diagnosis Oct. 1 until her positive result on Monday. Knowing she had been exposed to the coronavirus since last Thursday, the press secretary still spoke with reporters several times in the last few days while not wearing a mask, ABC News reports.
She’s clearly following her leader. Trump, who is still hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, despite breaking quarantine and endangering more lives to take a joyride around the block to wave to supporters, attended multiple campaign events knowing that he had been exposed to COVID-19.
Information about the president’s condition has not been reliable. White House physician Sean Conley has had to walk back at least two misleading statements about Trump’s health—one being an outright lie about the use of supplemental oxygen—but doctors now claim that the president may be feeling well enough to be released Monday.
To date in the United States, there have been 7.44 million COVID-19 cases and 21o,000 deaths.