WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump has tested negative for the new coronavirus, according to the president's personal physician.
The White House released the test results Saturday night after Trump told reporters hours earlier he had taken the coronavirus test, following days of resisting being screened despite the fact he had been in recent contact with three people who have tested positive for the virus, including members of the Brazilian president's delegation who visited with him at his Florida resort.
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"One week after having dinner with the Brazilian delegation in Mar-a-Lago, the President remains symptom-free," Sean Conley, the president's physician, said in a memo.
Trump told reporters at a White House briefing Saturday he had his temperature taken and it was "totally normal," shortly before stepping into the room to discuss the government's efforts to halt the spread of the virus. The pandemic has now infected more than 2,200 people in the U.S. and caused at least 50 deaths.
The president had multiple direct and indirect contacts with people who have since tested positive for the virus, including three people he spent time with last weekend at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
The Brazilian Embassy in Washington said late Friday that the country's chargé d'affaires, Nestor Forster, tested positive after sitting at Trump's dinner table. So, too, have a top aide to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who took a photo with Trump and attended a party with him, and another person who attended a campaign fundraiser with the president that Sunday, according to two Republican officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss private health matters.
Trump, after days of insisting he was not exhibiting symptoms of the virus, relented after being pressed by reporters about his resistance to testing when multiple lawmakers and countless citizens across the country who have had the same degree of exposure have not only tried to get tested, but also chosen to try to avoid potentially infecting others.
The president, according to two people close to the White House, had been reluctant to take the test for fear it would project weakness or worry. Trump has wanted to appear in full control during the crisis, and had expressed concerns taking personal steps could undermine that appearance.
Trump came into office as a self-described germaphobe who tried to avoid handshakes as he conducted his real estate business. But he acknowledged Saturday he's now finding it difficult to resist shaking hands, a habit he says he's picked up since becoming a full-time politician.