White House adviser Hope Hicks has tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus, Bloomberg News was first to report. People close to the president are tested regularly for the coronavirus.
A White House official told The Hill that contact tracing is being conducted "and the appropriate notifications and recommendations have been made." Hicks accompanied the president on board Air Force One to the first presidential debate on Tuesday night and also accompanied the president to a campaign rally on Wednesday.
It is not immediately clear whether Hicks is asymptomatic or not. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 31-year-old Hicks is at low risk for severe illness due to COVID-19 infection.
In a statement, White House spokesman Judd Deere said, "The President takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously."
"White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to the President and the White House Military Office to ensure all plans and procedures incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting COVID-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible both on complex and when the President is traveling," said Deere.
Hicks is one of President Trump's closest political aides and an early member of the president's 2016 bid for the White House. Hicks served as White House communications director before departing in March 2018. Hicks returned to the White House in March of this year in the role of counselor to the president.