The White House has started to check the temperature of anyone around President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday.
“Out of an abundance of caution, temperature checks are now being performed on any individuals who are in close contact with the President and Vice President,” the White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.
Before a press conference held in the White House which Trump and Pence attended, a doctor from the White House Physicians Office checked the temperature of reporters at the door of the press briefing room with a no-contact thermometer.
A member of the media was rejected from entering the White House press briefing room and was held by the press office on the White House driveway because he had a temperature above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the vice president’s press secretary, Katie Miller.
Miller said that the temperature was taken three times over a 15 minute period.
The White House didn’t provide more information about the male who was turned away.
During the press conference, Trump said he has been tested for coronavirus and will extend the Europe travel ban to the United Kingdom and Ireland starting midnight on March 16.
2 Near Trump Test Positive
Two people who were recently at the president’s Florida resort, where he spent time last weekend, have tested positive for COVID-19, the virus the disease causes.Two members of Brazil’s delegation to the United States interacted with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The president “briefly came in contact” with one, physician Sean Conley said. Trump spent more time with the other Brazilian but “all interactions occurred before any symptom onset,” according to Conley.
Conley said that the risk for transmission in both cases is low and did not suggest the president self-quarantine.
“These interactions would be categorized as LOW risk for transmission per CDC guidelines, and as such, there is no indication for home quarantine at this time,” Conley said in a statement.
