A journalist who attended President Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last weekend has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Oklahoma Watch reporter Paul Monies said he found out about his diagnosis on Friday, less than a week after the rally took place.
“Friends, I tested positive for #COVID19. I’m pretty surprised. I have zero symptoms (so far) and I feel fine. In fact, I ran 5 miles this morning,” he tweeted, adding that he’s been calling people with whom he’s come in contact over the past two weeks.
Monies said he wore a mask while he was at the rally last Saturday, which was attended by thousands of people, and claimed that he did not come in close contact with the president, according to the Associated Press.
“I can’t say definitively that I got it at the rally,” he noted. “But it’s someone I’ve been in contact with in the last two weeks.”
“I spent a couple of hours reaching out to anyone I was in contact with indoors, a few friends in the neighborhood,” Monies said. “I just felt it was my responsibility to tell people I knew myself that I have tested positive.”
Several members of Trump’s campaign team tested positive for the virus just hours before the event was set to begin. Dozens of Secret Service agents were asked to quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus during the trip to Oklahoma.
Trump and his campaign team have been criticized for their decision to hold the rally, the president’s first in months, in spite of the pandemic and a spike of cases in Oklahoma.
