Trump says he’ll be tested daily for coronavirus

President Trump will be tested for coronavirus on a daily basis after a military member who serves as the president’s valet tested positive.

“So, we test once a week. Now we’re going to go testing once a day,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with the governor of Texas on Thursday. “But even when you test once a day, somebody could — something happens where they catch something.”

The president said the daily testing regimen would apply to the vice president and certain high-level White House officials as well.

Trump told reporters he was not in regular contact with the valet who tested positive, and the White House has said the president remains in “good health.” 

“It’s a little bit strange, but it’s one of those things,” Trump said of the valet testing positive.

The White House announced earlier Thursday that “a member of the United States Military, who works on the White House campus, has tested positive for Coronavirus.” Trump has since been tested himself and the results were negative.

CNN first reported that the individual who tested positive is a member of the U.S. Navy who serves as one of the president’s personal valets. The network reported that the individual started exhibiting symptoms on Wednesday morning.

The valet is the second known individual who works at the White House to test positive for the virus, which health officials have warned is highly transmissible. A staffer in Vice President Pence’s office tested positive for the virus in March.

The White House uses Abbott labs tests that deliver rapid results and are less invasive than most coronavirus tests.

The White House also administers rapid tests to individuals traveling with the president or vice president or who meet with them in person, and reporters who enter the White House grounds are given temperature checks.

The administration has faced intense criticism for the slow rollout of testing in the early weeks of the pandemic. The White House has since shifted the responsibility for organizing testing to state leaders, but the governors have complained of shortages of reagents, swabs and other materials states need to conduct the tests.

The White House has repeatedly pointed to the sheer volume of tests conducted in the U.S. to argue its efforts have been a success. Still, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday called it “nonsensical” to try to test every American.

“If we tested every single American in this country at this moment, we’d have to retest them an hour later, and then an hour later after that,” she said. “Because at any moment, you could theoretically contract this virus. So the notion that everyone needs to be tested is just simply nonsensical.”