Both of the White House assistant press secretaries, Chad Gilmartin and Karoline Leavitt, tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend, according to a Reuters report published Monday.
That brings the total count of cases within Donald Trump's administration, including the president himself, to seven.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced on Monday that she had tested positive for the virus.
In a statement posted to Twitter, McEnany said she has begun "the quarantine process and will continue working on behalf of the American People remotely."
The outbreak in the White House appears to have begun after one of the president's senior advisers, Hope Hicks, was diagnosed with coronavirus Thursday. She had spent several days in close proximity with the president and reportedly began exhibiting symptoms during his New Jersey fundraiser that day, according to The New York Times.
At just before 1 a.m. on Friday, Trump announced on Twitter that he and first lady Melania Trump had also tested positive for COVID-19. The announcement has since become the president's most-shared tweet.
On Friday afternoon, Trump was admitted to the Walter Reed Medical Center as a "precautionary measure" and has remained at the hospital, where he is undergoing treatment, including doses of remdesivir.
A little over 24 hours after Trump was admitted to the hospital, his assistant and White House aide Nicholas Luna tested positive for COVID-19. Luna had accompanied Trump and Hicks on the trip to Cleveland, Ohio for the first presidential debate on September 29.
There have been reports that other White House staffers have been exposed to the virus, but such reports have not been confirmed publicly.
The White House declined Newsweek's request for comment.
A number of other political figures who are not or are no longer part of the administration have also tested positive for coronavirus. The cluster attached to the White House includes Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien and former counselor Kellyanne Conway, who both tested positive the same night Trump was hospitalized.
According to Politico, Stepien reportedly exhibited "mild flu-like symptoms" after traveling with Trump and Hicks to the first presidential debate four days before his diagnosis.
Conway tweeted on Friday, "My symptoms are mild (light cough) and I'm feeling fine. I have begun a quarantine process in consultation with physicians." She attended the September 26 Supreme Court nomination ceremony of Amy Coney Barrett in the Rose Garden—now considered a COVID-19 "superspreader" event.
On Saturday, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, an adviser to the president's re-election campaign who also attended the Rose Garden ceremony, received his positive test results. Christie has since checked himself into the hospital as a precaution.
A number of Republican senators who have been in close contact with Trump, including Senator Mike Lee of Utah, Senator Thom Tills of North Carolina and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, have also tested positive. Lee and Tills both attended the Rose Garden ceremony.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
