President Donald Trump said that he took a test Friday to determine whether he has the coronavirus and will have the results within a few days.
“I also took the test last night, and I decided I should based on the press conference yesterday. People were asking,” Trump said during a press conference at the White House Saturday.
“They sent it to a lab,” he added, saying results should take a “day or two” to come back from the lab.
Trump, who has continued to shake hands with people, including during his announcement Friday at the White House that he was declaring a national emergency, despite the CDC’s recommendation to limit physical contact, told reporters that “it almost becomes a habit.”
The White House also announced that they would expand the European travel ban to include the United Kingdom and Ireland beginning midnight on Monday.
“Again, Americans in the U.K. or Ireland can come home,” Vice President Mike Pence said Saturday. “Legal residents can come home.”
Trump had initially said during his Oval Office address on Monday night that Ireland and the U.K. were exempt from the ban, although it was unclear why the exception was made because the virus is also present in Britain.
The White House also suggested that domestic travel restrictions could be a possibility. On Friday, the Department of Defense announced they were halting domestic travel for all service members, civilian employees and their families in an effort to combat the coronavirus.
“We’re considering a broad range of measures,” Pence said when asked about the possibility of domestic travel restrictions.
Trump had been repeatedly criticized for refusing to get tested for the virus after it was reported that he was in close contact with multiple people at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida who had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Trump’s announcement that he had gotten tested appears to be in contrast to a Friday memo from Sean P. Conley, physician to the president, stating that Trump did not need to be tested because the interactions he had with known patients were “low risk.”
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Source: NBC News
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