2 new Covid-19 cases reported in White House

Two more people close to US President Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus, media reports said Monday.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, 69, has contracted the virus, his deputy chief of staff Coalter Baker told NPR.

“He is in good spirits and feels fortunate to have access to effective therapeutics which aid and markedly speed his recovery,” Baker said in a statement.

According to ABC television, Carson was briefly treated at Walter Reid military hospital outside Washington DC, where Trump himself was treated for the virus.

Carson had spent Tuesday evening at the White House watching the election results come in.

Another top aide to the president, David Bossie, was also at the White House event and tested positive on Sunday and has been self-isolating at home, NBC news said.

Bossie, 55, was tapped a few days ago to lead the president’s legal challenges to the election results.

On Friday, media reported that Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows had tested positive for the disease after the election. It was not clear when he contracted the virus.

The Washington Post said Meadows was in the crowd in the White House when Trump addressed around 150 of his staff and supporters on Wednesday.

Several leading members of the administration have contracted the virus in recent weeks, including Trump and his wife, First Lady Melania Trump.

The US had recorded 238,000 deaths by Monday night and more than 10 million people have been infected.

The pandemic was one of the main issues in the battle for the White House between Trump and former vice-president Joe Biden, whom media projected to have won on Saturday.