Washington, March 13 The White House has said that President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence do not require testing for the novel coronavirus, following reports that a member of the Brazilian delegation that visited the US last week and met the two have been infected with the disease.
On Thursday, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said that they aware of the development and that "confirmatory testing is pending", reports Xinhua news agency
"Exposures from the case are being assessed, which will dictate next steps," Grisham said.
"Both the President and Vice President had almost no interactions with the individual who tested positive and do not require being tested at this time."
There is currently no indication to test patients without symptoms, and only people with prolonged close exposure to confirmed positive cases should self-quarantine, Grisham said, citing guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We are monitoring the situation closely and will update everyone as we get more information," she added.
Fabio Wajngarten, communications secretary for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, reportedly came down with flu-like symptoms after returning home and was taken to a hospital where he was tested positive for the coronavirus.
Wajngarten posted on social media a picture of him posing along with Trump, Pence and Bolsonaro at the US President's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Bolsonaro is also being tested for COVID-19.
Speaking to reporters at the White House earlier on Thursday, Trump said he was not concerned about the news.
"I did hear something about that. We had dinner together in Florida at Mar-a-Lago, with the entire delegation," Trump said.
"I don't know if the press aide was there... we did nothing very unusual. We sat next to each other for a period of time."
As of Thursday afternoon, there were over 1,300 confirmed cases and 38 deaths in the US.
( With inputs from IANS )