US president does not need to take a test to determine if he's positive for coronavirus because two interactions he had with known patients were "low risk," a White House doctor said in a memo released Friday.
The memo made public hours after Trump said he would be tested.
"Not for that reason, but because I think I will do it anyway," the president said Friday when asked about his interaction at his Mar-a-Lago resort last weekend with an aide to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Fabio Wajngarten, who turned up positive.
The physician to the president, Sean P. Conley, argued that because Trump's interaction was minimal, including a handshake, and because Wajngarten and another patient were not exhibiting symptoms at the time they socialized with the president, Trump's unlikely to get the virus.
"All interactions occurred before any symptom onset," Conley wrote. "These interactions would be categorized as LOW risk for transmission per CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, and as such, there is no indication for home quarantine at this time."
"Additionally, given the President himself is without symptoms, testing for COVID-19 is not currently indicated," he wrote.