Donald Trump’s National Security adviser has coronavirus, the White House announced today, making him the highest- ranking administration official to test positive for it.
‘National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien tested positive for COVID-19,’ the White House said in a statement.
‘He has mild symptoms and has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site,’ it continued, adding that National Security Council operations and work ‘continues uninterrupted.’
O’Brien, 54, contracted COVID-19 while attending a family event, and has been out of the office since late last week.
During isolation, O’Brien has still been running the National Security Council remotely, and one person said he has been doing most of his work over the phone.
It was not disclosed if any mother members of his family, including wife Lo-Mari, have also tested positive.
O’Brien joined Trump on a July 10 trip to Florida.
A photograph of O’Brien after deplaning in Miami shows him without a mask.
Trump’s adviser also recently returned from Europe, where he met with officials from the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy.
News of the infection comes as the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. has surpassed 4.2 million as of Monday morning and there are nearly 147,000 deaths.
Vice President Mike Pence’s Press Secretary Katie Miller and Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend and his father’s campaign adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle also tested positive for coronavirus in May and July respectively.
Also in May, an unidentified personal valet to the president was infected.
Miller and the valet’s positive tests earlier this year led to concern within the White House that others could be infected, leading several officials and aides to self-quarantine – including the nation’s top immunologist and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force Dr. Anthony Fauci.
But O’Brien’s diagnosis this month makes him the most senior White House official to contract coronavirus.
Following the president’s first post-coronavirus rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma last month, several campaign staffers contracted the disease.
All staff who attended the June rally were required to get tested for coronavirus after eight campaign aides who were there obtained positive test results.
The revelation of O’Brien’s illness came as new COVID-19 cases hit record highs in more than a dozen states while Texas, Florida, Arizona and California show signs of a plateau – and as Dr Deborah Birx urged regions with rising infections to close bars, cut back on indoor dining and to mandate face masks.
There has now been more than 4.2 million infections recorded across the United States and nearly 147,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.
The number of cases in the current hard hit states of Texas, California, Arizona and Florida are now showing signs of plateauing after a month of record surges, according to Dr Birx.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says the leveling off of cases in the hotspot states is because people are social distancing and wearing masks but warned the US wasn’t ‘out of the woods yet’.
As cases appear to plateau in those hard hit states, the number of infections are now spiking, based on a seven-day average, in more than a dozen states, including Oklahoma, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii and Wyoming.
Nevada, Texas and South Carolina have seen record highs in the number of deaths based on a seven-day average.
Dr Birx, who is the head of the White House COVID-19 taskforce, said the surge in cases that has plagued Sunbelt states since Memorial Day is now being seen elsewhere, which is a sign that the virus is now spreading North.
The states with rising cases should be closing bars, cutting back on indoor restaurant capacity and limiting social gatherings to 10 people, Dr Birx warned.
She also said all Americans should be wearing masks when out in public or around other people.
‘We can see what is happening in the South moving North,’ Dr Birx said. ‘We do believe there are states that do need to close their bars.’
Oklahoma hit a record for new cases five times throughout July, with 1,204 new infections on Sunday, bringing the state’s total to 31,285, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.
In Missouri, infections surged to record daily highs on Saturday with 1,652 new cases. Infections across the state, which now has 41,927 cases, have been on an upward trajectory since late June.
Mississippi’s cases have been spiking to near record highs in recent days with 1,610 infections reported on Friday, down from the record 1,904 on July 4.
Infections have surged this month with the total now at 52,304.
Meanwhile, the number of new infections in Florida, Arizona and Texas now appear to be trending downwards for the first time since late May or early June.
Deaths, however, are still rising in both Florida and Texas.
While deaths have seen single daily highs in Arizona in the past week, average fatalities appear to show a leveling out.
Despite the downward trajectory, Florida on Sunday became the second state after California to overtake New York, the original epicenter of the US outbreak.