Australian Official With Coronavirus Met With Ivanka Trump, AG William Barr

Australian Official With Coronavirus Met With Ivanka Trump, AG William Barr
Peter Dutton at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 18, 2019. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)
Jack Phillips
3/13/2020
Updated:
3/13/2020

A senior Australian minister who tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus met with President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and Attorney General William Barr just days before that.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who was in the United States for the meeting earlier in March, confirmed that he tested positive for the new virus that emerged late last year in Wuhan, China, before spreading to more than 100 other countries.

“This morning I woke up with a temperature and sore throat,” Dutton wrote on Twitter. “It is the policy of Queensland Health that anyone who tests positive is to be admitted into hospital and I have complied with their advice.”
Last week, on March 6, Dutton was seen in a photo with Barr and Ivanka Trump, along with other officials, after a meeting on how to combat child exploitation across the world.

“I feel fine and will provide an update in due course,” Dutton said in his statement.

The White House said in a statement Friday that Ivanka Trump worked from home “out of an abundance of caution” but has shown no symptoms and doesn’t need to self-quarantine, citing guidance from doctors.

Dutton’s infection comes after the White House confirmed Thursday that it was aware of reports that a spokesman for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for COVID-19 and had met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last weekend.

“Both the president and vice president had almost no interactions with the individual who tested positive and do not require being tested at this time,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement about the official, adding that the Secret Service and White House doctors are taking precautions now to keep the families of Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, other officials, and staff safe.

Bolsonaro’s communications secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, who tested positive for the new virus, posted a photo on Instagram, showing him next to Trump and Pence with the caption: “Make Brazil Great Again.”

“The medical service of the presidency of the Republic adopted and is adopting all the necessary preventative measures to preserve the health of the president of the Republic and the entire presidential committee which accompanied him on the recent trip to the United States, as well as presidential palace staff,” Brazil’s government said, according to The Guardian.

Bolsonaro on Friday said he tested negative for the virus.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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