(REUTERS)
Hope Hicks, one of Donald Trump’s closest aides, has tested positive for coronavirus, according to reports.
Ms Hicks, who serves as counselor to the president in her second stint at the White House, is seen as one of his most loyal and trusted advisers.
She travelled with him to his rally in Minnesota on Tuesday.
Counselor to the President Hope Hicks arrives at the White House in Washington, late Monday, Sept. 21, 2020, after attending rallies in Ohio with President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Reports that she had tested positive for coronavirus first came from Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs, who tweeted: “Hope Hicks, who traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One to and from the presidential debate on Tuesday, and to his Minnesota rally yesterday, has coronavirus, sources tell me.”
Ms Hicks has been seen both with and without a mask while travelling with Trump’s team to rallies in recent weeks.
She added: “No indication Trump has contracted coronavirus, but inner circle aide Hope Hicks has it, and is experiencing symptoms of the disease. She was in close proximity to him, maskless, in recent days. She was quarantined on AF1 on trip back from Minnesota.”
The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman tweeted: “Have confirmed from two sources @JenniferJJacobs reporting that Hope Hicks has tested positive for the coronavirus.”
Asked by The Independent to confirm the reports, the White House said: “The President takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously.
“White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to the President and the White House Military Office to ensure all plans and procedures incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting Covid-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible both on complex and when the President is travelling.”
What the diagnosis means for the president was not immediately clear,
He has a rally in Florida scheduled for Friday and an event in Wisconsin on Saturday.
Counselor to the President Hope Hicks (L) and White House social media director Dan Scavino (R) walk to board Air Force One prior to US President Donald Trump departure from Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wisconsin, June 25, 2020. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
Ms Hicks is the closest aide to Mr Trump to have reportedly tested positive for Covid-19, which has infected some 7.3 million Americans and killed 207,000.
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At the first presidential debate against Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday, Mr Trump insisted that there had been no negative consequences from his decision to hold repeated election rallies with little social distancing and with many audience members not wearing masks.
His friend Herman Cain, a business magnate and former Republican presidential hopeful, tested positive for coronavirus and later died from it after attending a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June, where he was among multiple attendees not wearing a mask. However, it is not known whether Mr Cain contracted the illness there.
Staff around Mr Trump are tested for coronavirus daily.
The president himself has repeatedly mocked the idea of wearing masks, although he has been seen with one occasionally. His CDC director, Robert Redfield, testified on Capitol Hill last month that wearing a mask could be an even more effective way to slow the spread of Covid-19 than a vaccine, once one has been developed. Mr Trump responded by saying that Mr Redfield must have misunderstood the question he was being asked.
Ms Hicks worked for the Trump Organisation before becoming a press secretary for his 2016 campaign.
Following his victory she became director of strategic communications at the White House and later communications director, before her resignation in March 2018., something sources at the time said she had been planning for several months.
She was recalled to the White House in March this year as counselor to the president.
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