Despite still being ill with COVID-19, and contagious, U.S. President Donald Trump isn't expected to wear a mask all the time as he returns to work at the White House.
Trump checked himself out of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center late Monday with the consent of his physicians. Trump is classified as an active COVID-19 patient being treated for the disease and still contagious. He is receiving the steroid dexamethasone and the antiviral drug remdesivir - which are generally administered to patients with moderate to severe infections.
While the White House and the physician to the president, Dr. Sean Conley, have refused to say when Trump had his last negative COVID-19 test, other doctors have said Trump will remain infectious this week.
Clinical studies have shown that people with COVID-19 have "a low but real possibility of infectiousness" between seven and nine days after falling ill. It is assumed Trump was infected Sept. 30. He might pass the disease to people he comes into contact with until Friday.
The White House is now a COVID-19 hot spot. It isn't known how many White House staffers have tested positive for COVID-19.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said she tested positive early Monday and that two of her deputies had also tested positive. McEnany said she will start the "quarantine process and will continue working on behalf of the American people remotely," Bloomberg quoted her as saying.
The top White House representative is the latest staffer to be infected with COVID, adding to doubts about how widespread the disease will turn out in the presidential residence.
McEnany was present during multiple White House events in the last few days that have been followed by positive tests among guests. She was in the Rose Garden, without any face covering, for the announcement of Amy Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court nine days ago.
McEnany also traveled to Cleveland with Trump on Tuesday a week ago for the presidential debate. White House adviser Hope Hicks and campaign manager Bill Stepien, who have both tested positive of the virus, were on that flight.
In her statement, McEnany asserted she was not aware of Hicks's positive findings when she briefed reporters Thursday afternoon.
Some 400 people work at the White House. Three journalists have also taken ill after attending briefings by McEnany.
Other Republicans taken ill since Sept. 26 are former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah and Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina.
Trump's return to the White House as a disease spreader is bound to concern staff already fearful. Trump has consistently refused to wear a face mask and political pundits said he wasn't expected to wear one now.
