President Donald Trump was tested yet again on Thursday for the novel coronavirus disease known as COVID-19. And according to The Hill, that test came back negative.
A White House doctor said in a memo that the president is “healthy and without symptoms,” The Hill reported.
Trump is feeling fine
In his memo, White House physician Sean Conley said Trump was tested Thursday for the coronavirus “utilizing a new, rapid point-of-care test capability.”
“He is healthy and without symptoms,” Dr. Conley continued, according to The Hill. “Sample collection took just one minute, and results were reported back in 15 minutes. The president tested negative for COVID-19.”
Trump was previously tested for the deadly respiratory disease after he met with Brazil’s president at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month. An aide of President Jair Bolsonaro had later tested positive for the virus, according to the New York Post.
“One week after having dinner with the Brazilian delegation in Mar-a-Lago, the president remains symptom-free,” Conley said at the time, according to Fox News. Still, the president was tested, and Conley later revealed that test, too, was negative.
Speaking at a press briefing at the White House, Trump told reporters this week that the new test is both quicker and less invasive than the one he took in mid-March.
“It took me literally a minute to take it,” he said Thursday, according to The Hill. “The second one is much more pleasant.”
Trump also reiterated to reporters that he is asymptomatic, saying, “I think I took [the coronavirus test] really out of curiosity to see how fast it worked.”
From New York to New Orleans
As of Friday afternoon, the United States had over 270,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data, and nearly 7,000 deaths. New York City has been hit the hardest by the disease, with more than 1,500 deaths there alone.
However, New Orleans has also taken a beating. A report from Reuters indicated that the Big Easy’s “per-capita death rate” from the virus is “twice that of New York City.”
“We’re just sicker,” Dr. Rebekah Gee, who served as Louisiana’s health secretary until early this year, told Reuters. “We already had tremendous health care disparities before this pandemic, and one can only imagine they are being amplified now.”
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