White House officials wanted to keep Hope Hicks’ COVID diagnosis a secret after the close adviser to President Donald Trump tested positive for the disease.
Only a very small circle of people knew that Hicks had tested positive, and senior staff had hoped to keep that information private, reported Bloomberg News, which broke the news of her diagnosis.
It’s unclear when and how Hicks, 31, contracted the disease.
Hicks tested positive on Thursday but sees the president on a daily basis and travels with him frequently.
She joined him – and several senior White House aides – on Air Force One on Tuesday to travel to the presidential debate in Cleveland and she was with the president on Wednesday when he traveled to Minnesota.
Hicks was quarantined away from others on the president’s plane on the return trip from Minnesota and her diagnosis was confirmed Thursday, an administration official told the Associated Press.
But Trump continued with his schedule Thursday and traveled to and from his Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort to take part in two campaign events. They were held behind closed doors to a select audience.
White House officials wanted to keep Hope Hicks’ COVID diagnosis a secret after she tested positive for the disease – above she exits Marine One on Wednesday
Hope Hicks wears a face mask aboard Marine One in mid-September
Last photo: Donald Trump looks bedraggled as he returns to the White House from his helicopter Marine One on Thursday afternoon, hours before revealing that he and the first lady had tested positive for Covid-19. He had attended a fundraiser in New Jersey
Hope Hicks hours before her diagnosis: Hope Hicks, far right, is pictured boarding Marine One on Wednesday. The President was also on board alongside Stephen Miller, second from right, Jared Kushner, center. Her coronavirus diagnosis was announced the next day. They were on their way to Minnesota when this photograph was taken. She started feeling unwell on the way back
Trump then flew then back to the White House later Thursday evening, when it was then publicly confirmed Hicks had the virus.
His social media director Dan Scavino and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who were originally set to join him on the Thursday trip, were replaced at the last minute by other aides. Those two had traveled on Tuesday and Wednesday with the president.
It was not until shortly before 1am EST Friday that Trump confirmed he had the virus, writing: ‘Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!’
Senior staff have been tested for COVID-19 daily since two people who work at the White House complex tested positive in early May, prompting the White House to step up precautions. Everyone who comes into contact with the president also receives a quick-result test.
Testing for White House staff increased after a military valet who had close contact with the president contracted the virus.
In the same week, Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller – who is married to Trump adviser Stephen Miller – also tested positive.
People working around the president at the White House had already been getting regular tests for the coronavirus.
But staff, Secret Service agents, and guests had not been wearing masks in the West Wing.
On May 11, a memo to the president’s staff told them to wear face coverings, and discouraged unnecessary visits from other parts of the White House complex to the West Wing area.
‘Common sense has finally prevailed,’ one senior administration official said at the time.
It is not known why the president’s test took so long to come back or whether he was tested Wednesday evening when Hicks first began displaying symptoms.
Trump only said he and Melania were in quarantine on Thursday evening, writing: ‘Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19. Terrible! The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!’
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people who have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19 quarantine for 14 days, White House staffers are considered essential workers.
CDC’s guidelines for exposed essential workers allows them to return to work if they take precautions, including taking their temperature before going into work, wearing a mask at all times and practicing social distancing.
The positive test comes a month before the election and after the president has spent the year largely downplaying the threat of the virus.
TUESDAY: President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump wave before boarding Air Force One to travel to the first presidential debate in Cleveland
THURSDAY: President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to the White House in Washington, Thursday
Trump was last seen by reporters returning to the White House on Thursday evening and looked to be in good health. At 74 years old, he is at higher risk of serious complications from a virus that has now killed more than 205,000 people nationwide.
‘Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!’ Trump tweeted.
In a memorandum, the president’s physician said that the president and first lady ‘are both well at this time’ and ‘plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence.’
‘Rest assured I expect the President to continue carrying out his duties without disruption while recovering,’ he added.
The diagnosis marks a major blow for a president who has been trying desperately to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is behind them even as cases continue to rise just weeks before the November 3 election.
And it stands as the most serious known public health scare encountered by any sitting American president in recent history.
Symptoms of COVID-19 can include fever, cough and breathing trouble.
Most people develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal.
Trump had consistently played down concerns about being personally vulnerable to contracting COVID-19, even after White House staff and allies were exposed and sickened.