World News – CA – Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tests positive for coronavirus

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has tested positive for coronavirus, according to several US media reports on Friday night

Meadows, who is one of US President Donald Trump’s top aides, tested positive for the virus on Wednesday, a senior administration official confirmed to the New York Times The Associated Press and Bloomberg News also confirmed the diagnosis, citing senior administration officials

Officials, who requested anonymity, did not provide details on when Meadows first contracted the virus or its current status Bloomberg reported that Meadows told « a narrow circle of advisers » after Tuesday’s election that he tested positive

Meadows traveled with Trump in the run-up to Election Day and last appeared in public early Wednesday morning without a mask as Trump falsely declared victory in the vote count

CNN reported that officials had promised that all attendees at Trump’s address that morning, which also included Trump’s family members and other senior aides, would be tested before entering the room Almost no one wore masks during the event

It should be noted that Mark Meadows was at election night at the White House on Tuesday which hundreds of people attended. Officials said everyone would be tested in advance

Meadows had been one of the close associates around Trump when the president caught the virus over a month ago, but was tested daily and kept his regular work schedule

Bloomberg and the New York Times also said an anonymous second White House aide tested positive this week

This was the last case of the virus in the West Wing, coming not even two weeks after Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short and other aides tested positive for the virus

At least two dozen other people in the White House with Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for the virus in early October, after Trump held large rallies of people not wearing face masks, including ceremony announcing the appointment of now -Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court

Trump has repeatedly said the nation is « getting round the corner » of the pandemic, which was at the heart of voters’ concerns in Tuesday’s election

Meadows’ diagnosis came on the same day the US set a new record for daily coronavirus cases with more than 120,000 – the third day in a row the country has broken records – and more than 1,100 people are died from the virus

Last month, Meadows told CNN that the Trump administration « will not control the pandemic » by limiting its spread and lowering infection rates, focusing instead on vaccines and therapies

Mark Meadows, Donald Trump, Coronavirus, White House Chief of Staff Joe Biden