US HOUSING AND urban development secretary Ben Carson has tested positive for Covid-19, according to ABC News, marking the latest case of the virus in the White House.
Carson’s chief of staff, Coalter Baker, told the ABC that he is “in good spirits and feels fortunate to have access to effective therapeutics which aid and markedly speed his recovery”.
The former neurosurgeon is understood to have been in attendance at the Trump campaign’s election night watch party in the White House on Tuesday.
The news comes less than three days after Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows was diagnosed with the virus, which has killed more than 236,000 Americans so far this year.
Meadows had travelled with Trump in the run-up to Election Day and last appeared in public early last Wednesday – without a mask.
He had been one of the close aides around Trump when the president came down with the virus more than a month ago, but was tested daily and maintained his regular work schedule.
Two weeks previous, Marc Short, vice president Mike Pence’s chief of staff, and other aides tested positive for the virus also.
Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and at least two dozen others tested positive for the virus in early October, after Trump held large gatherings of people not wearing face masks, including the ceremony announcing the nomination of now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and policy advisers Stephen Miller and Hope Hicks are among more than a dozen other senior White House figures to have previously tested positive.
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