The Washington, D.C. Department of Health released a letter urging attendees at a recent Rose Garden event to get tested for COVID-19.
The event in question was held on Sept. 26 at the White House to announce that President Trump had nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Several attendees at the event, including Trump and first lady Melania Trump, tested positive for COVID-19 days later, although it is not clear if the event is where they contracted it.
The letter, which was signed by local health officials from nine nearby jurisdictions, advised that not only those at the Rose Garden event should get tested, but also said that anyone who has worked at the White House in the past two weeks should get a test.
The health officials wrote that their “preliminary understanding that there has been limited contact tracing performed to date, there may be other staff and residents at risk for exposure to COVID positive individuals.”
Trump’s team decided not to contact trace all of the staff members and guests who attended the Rose Garden event, the New York Times reported Monday, citing a senior White House official.
Judd Deere, the White House deputy press secretary, told the Washington Examiner on Monday that the White House has been following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines since the event. CDC guidelines stipulate that tracing should be done for those in “close contact” to someone with COVID-19 within two days of their diagnosis.
Trump returned to the White House from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he was being treated for his illness, on Monday night. Trump received an experimental polyclonal antibody cocktail, the antiviral drug remdesivir, vitamin D, zinc, famotidine, daily aspirin, and melatonin. He has since touted the medicine and claimed he feels great.
“I just left Walter Reed Medical Center, and it’s really something very special, the doctors, the nurses, the first responders — and I learned so much about coronavirus, and one thing that’s for certain, don’t let it dominate you,” Trump said in a video he released on Twitter after returning to the White House.
“Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it. We have the best medical equipment. We have the best medicines. All developed recently,” he added.
More than 7.5 million people in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19 and nearly 212,500 have died since the pandemic began. Worldwide more than 1 million people have died from COVID-19-related complications.
