Chief of staff kept positive test quiet
Some Trump aides frustrated that Meadows didn’t tell everyone
Some of President Donald Trump’s White House and campaign aides are frustrated that the president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, didn’t issue a statement after he tested positive for coronavirus this past week, instead informing only a close circle of advisers.
His infection was not widely known across Trump’s staff until late Friday, after Bloomberg News reported it. He tested positive on Wednesday, according to a senior administration official.
A small circle of people were aware earlier in the week that Meadows had become infected but were told to keep it quiet, several people said.
The White House Medical Unit conducted contact tracing during the latest outbreak, according to people familiar with the matter. Throughout the pandemic, the unit’s guidance for contact tracing has been to reach out to people in close proximity with the infected person for 15 minutes or more, within 48 hours of the diagnosis.
That excluded many aides who had crossed paths with Meadows at large events around Election Day, including a visit to campaign headquarters on Tuesday and a party at the White House that night.
Photos of the events showed few people wearing masks. Meadows, who has seldom worn a mask, was not seen wearing one on Tuesday.
He spent time upstairs in the White House residence on Tuesday with Trump’s family, including all of his adult children, according to people familiar with the matter. He helped persuade Trump to deliver brief remarks to the country at 2: 30 a. m. from the White House East Room. Meadows attended the speech, where the president claimed he had won the election before races had been called in key battleground states where votes were still being counted.
Meadows returned to campaign headquarters on Wednesday, again without wearing a mask, two people familiar with the situation said.
It isn’t clear whether Meadows has developed symptoms of COVID- 19, the disease caused by the virus.
At least four other White House officials have been infected, including Cassidy Hutchinson, one of Meadows’s closest aides, and Charlton Boyd, an aide to senior Trump adviser Jared Kushner, according to several people.