(PatrioticPost.com)- The coronavirus outbreak that has stricken President Donald Trump, others in his administration and some top Republicans most likely began at the event announcing Amy Coney Barrett as the president’s Supreme Court nominee.
A senior official within Trump’s administration said that event was the likely culprit of the coronavirus outbreak. It took place on Saturday, September 26 in the White House’s Rose Garden.
The official recently told CNN it “seems highly likely this (outbreak) originated at the SCOTUS announcement last week. It may have come from the Hill. The next major concern will be securing Capitol Hill and protecting lawmakers.”
There are at least eight people who attended that event who have since tested positive for coronavirus. In addition to the president, the other people who have tested positive are Senators Thom Tillis (North Carolina) and Mike Lee (Utah), First Lady Melania Trump, former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, University of Notre Dame president John Jenkins, and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
Trump made the announcement of Barrett as his nominee outside, but audience members were packed rather closely together in seats in the Rose Garden lawn. Most of those attendees were seen on camera not wearing masks. In addition to sitting near each other, attendees were also seen talking close and embracing each other at several points after the announcement was made.
The president and Republicans have been taking a lot of heat for this event since news of Trump’s positive diagnosed was revealed last Friday. But, as Jenkins said, all entrants were checked with a rapid-response test and then told it was safe for them to take off their masks once the test results came back negative.
Since the event, many of these people have been entering into self-isolation or self-quarantine. Many other officials who have not tested positive are also doing the same for precautionary reasons.
Attorney General William Barr, for example, said he would self-quarantine “for now,” although he is expected to return to work sometime this week. Barr has been in close contact with many White House officials, as well as Conway recently.
Barr will self-quarantine even though he has tested negative four times since Friday morning. That’s according to Kerri Kupec, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice.
Barr attended the Rose Garden event, but apparently hasn’t contracted the virus — at least not yet.
There are plenty of other people who have come in contact with the officials that have tested positive for coronavirus recently. How they will all handle self-quarantining or self-isolation isn’t yet clear. It’s possible that more news of new cases or new protections and precautions being put into place are announced over the coming days.
As the senior administration official said, the biggest concern now is making sure that the coronavirus outbreak at the Rose Garden doesn’t spread to more people on Capitol Hill. These lawmakers are in constant contact with each other as well as constituents, office staff and plenty of other people on a day-to-day basis.
