Trump has tested negative for Covid-19, is no longer contagious, doctor says
Washington, Oct 12 (efe-epa).- President Donald Trump has tested negative for Covid-19 and is not contagious, White House physician Dr. Sean Conley announced Monday.
In a memo distributed by the White House shortly before Trump is scheduled to participate in a campaign rally in Sanford, Florida, Conley said that the president tested “negative on consecutive days” for Covid-19 using a test called the BinaxNOW antigen card, developed by Abbott Laboratories.
Conley added that the multiple negative tests, along with other clinical and laboratory data “indicate a lack of detectable viral replication.”
Thus, the president’s doctors have determined that – based on the tests and other data, as well as guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – “the president is not infectious to others,” Conley said.
Last August, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization to Abbott Diagnostics Scarborough Inc. for its BinaxNOW Covid-19 antigen card test.
The medical report was issued by the White House just as Trump is preparing to attend a campaign rally in central Florida a week after he left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, after being treated there for three days after being diagnosed with Covid-19 and experiencing assorted symptoms, including a high fever, lethargy and low blood oxygen levels.
“See you in Sanford, Florida, tonight for a Big Rally,” tweeted Trump on Monday morning, after declaring to Fox News on Sunday that he is now “immune” to the coronavirus, after testing positive for Covid-19 on in early October and receiving treatment for three days at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Trump also said that he was doing “fantastically” and “in very good shape to fight the battles.”
After the Florida rally, Trump is scheduled later this week to hold other campaign events in the states of Pennsylvania and Iowa, where he hopes to gain ground among voters, whose support for him has been slipping markedly in recent voter surveys.
