President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, was diagnosed with COVID-19, the White House showed Monday.
“It has mild symptoms and has been isolated and painted from an offsite location,” officials told the White House press group. “There is no threat of exposure to the president or vice president. The paintings of the National Security Council remain uninterrupted.”
Citing unidentified sources, Bloomberg reported that O’Brien contracted the viral infection at a family circle event. This was not without delay evident when tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The 54-year-old former ambassador is the president’s fourth national security adviser after John Bolton’s departure in September 2019. He is the top high-ranking White House official who has been diagnosed with the virus to date.
In May, Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, recovered from COVID-19. Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is dating the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., has also tested positive for the virus. More than a dozen trump crusade officials tested positive for the new coronavirus after the president held a rally last month in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Last week, a Marine assigned to Trump’s helicopter squadron also tested positive for COVID-19, according to Politico.
Trump said he had a coronavirus test.
The United States leads the world with the number of coronavirus cases and the number of deaths. Since the onset of the pandemic, the government has recorded more than 4.2 million infections and reported more than 146,000 deaths nationwide, according to figures compiled through Johns Hopkins University.
As of Monday morning, more than 16.2 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported internationally and more than 648,000 people have died from a viral infection, according to Johns Hopkins.
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