US President Donald Trump has tested negative for coronavirus after a member of the military who worked as his personal valet tested positive for COVID-19, in Brazil mass graves fill with victims.
Friday’s top stories:
- China hits back at Trump’s ‘worse than 9/11’ claims
- Brazil’s mass graves filled with coronavirus deceased
- Medics make up a third of Kabul’s COVID-19 cases
- Brewery may have to dump 400 million bottles of beer
- From hairdressers to beaches, Spain plans to phase out lockdown
- Shipped PPE from Turkey fails UK’s safety standards
- Japan approves remdesivir to treat patients with COVID-19
- Madonna says she had COVID-19
- More than 33.5m unemployed in US
Trump tests negative for coronavirus, after report valet infected
A member of the military serving as one of President Donald Trump’s valets has tested positive for the coronavirus but both Mr Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence have since tested negative
The military official was identified by CNN as a personal valet to Mr Trump.
“We were recently notified by the White House Medical Unit that a member of the United States Military, who works on the White House campus, has tested positive for coronavirus,” spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement.
The White House instituted safety protocols nearly two months ago, including frequent temperature checks.
Last month it began administering rapid COVID-19 tests to all those in close proximity to the President, with staffers being tested about once a week.
Mr Trump has now been tested at least twice for the coronavirus and both times tested negative. A test on April 2 came out negative, the White House said.
On April 3, the the White House said that anyone expected to be near Mr Trump or Mr Pence will be given a rapid COVID-19 test out of an abundance of caution.
China hits back at Trump’s ‘worse than 9/11’ claim
China’s Foreign Ministry says the reason for the US Secretary of State’s “self-contradictory” claims about the origin of the coronavirus is because he has been “making up lies” and “fabricating more lies”.
Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday the claim that the new coronavirus originated from a Chinese infectious diseases lab lacked “certainty”, which differs from his remarks on whether the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the source of the outbreak.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said the war against the virus is also a war against lies.
“We hope that the politicians in the United States who are still addicted to the buck-passing game can mend their course as soon as possible and quickly concentrate on how to control the epidemic at home and save more lives,” she said.
Ms Hua also responded to remarks made on Wednesday by President Trump, who said the outbrea