White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Monday that she has tested positive for the coronavirus, a diagnosis that comes as President Donald Trump remains hospitalized with the virus.
“After testing negative consistently, including every day since Thursday, I tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday morning while experiencing no symptoms,” McEnany said in a statement that she posted on Twitter.
“No reporters, producers, or members of the press are listed as close contacts by the White House Medical Unit.”
McEnany gave a briefing to reporters at the White House last Thursday, hours before Trump’s advisor Hope Hicks was revealed to have tested positive for Covid-19. Trump’s diagnosis, and that of his wife, first lady Melania Trump, was revealed shortly thereafter.
“I definitively had no knowledge of Hope Hicks’ diagnosis prior to holding a White House press briefing on Thursday,” McEnany wrote in her Twitter post.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany takes off her face covering before speaking with reporters outside the West Wing of the White House on October 2, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have both tested positive for coronavirus.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images News | Getty Images
“As an essential worker, I have worked diligently to provide needed information to the American People at this time,” she wrote.
“With my recent positive test, I will begin the quarantine process and will continue working on behalf of the American People remotely.”
In White House circles, McEnany has become a symbol of how closely held the early diagnoses of Covid-19 were among high-ranking officials.
While Hicks tested positive for the coronavirus early Thursday, McEnany was not immediately informed of the diagnosis, nor that she herself had been exposed to the virus, until Thursday evening, when press reports began to emerge about Hicks.
In the hours between Hicks’ positive test and when McEnany learned of it, she briefed the press in the White House briefing room, while not wearing a mask.
Melania Trump’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham, who preceded McEnany as White House press secretary, declined to comment on McEnany’s disclosure Monday.
– Additional reporting by CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger
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