IVANKA TRUMP’S AIDE, MIKE PENCE’S PRESS SECY NEW COVID-19 CASES AT WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON: US vice-president Mike Pence’s press secretary on Friday became the second White House official to test positive for Covid-19 in recent days, raising questions about protection from the coronavirus at what is seen as the country’s safest workplace.
US President Donald Trump and Pence were tested again after Katie Miller’s positive diagnosis. Both have tested negative. On Thursday, a personal military valet to the US president had tested positive.
A personal aide to Ivanka Trump, the American president’s daughter and adviser, has also tested positive, according to news reports that said she was working from home and not been around Ivanka for weeks. Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to the US president, were tested on Friday and both were found to be negative.
Donald Trump and Pence are now being tested for the virus everyday. The White House has sad that all staff members working in close proximity to the president and the vice-president are being tested daily, in addition to the enforcement of social distancing measures, temperature checks, symptom histories, the use of hand sanitisers and regular deep cleaning of all work spaces.
The infections at the White House have raised questions about workplace safety around the country as businesses steadily reopen.
Over the last 24 hours, the country has reported 1,518 new deaths and 26,960 fresh infections. President Trump, however, is optimistic that the pandemic will be over soon. He told reporters at a meeting with Republican lawmakers that the virus “is going to go away without a vaccine. It’s going to go away, and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time”.
“You may have some flare-ups and I guess I would expect that,” he said. “Sometime in the fall, you’ll have flare-ups maybe.”
The US president had earlier said a vaccine is likely by the end of the year, though medical experts on the White House coronavirus task force have been a little more circumspect and suggested January or later.
Trump’s optimism is in line with his earlier remarks that the outbreak will be gone like a “miracle”.
VISA RULES TIGHTENED FOR CHINESE SCRIBES
Amid rising tensions with China over the coronavirus outbreak, Washington on Friday cut the visa period for Chinese journalists to 90 days, allowing the option, though, to extend it. The two countries have been engaged in a series of retaliatory actions against journalists over the past few months.