Coronavirus pandemic in the US

By Meg Wagner, Mike Hayes, Elise Hammond and Veronica Rocha, CNN

Updated 4:00 p.m. ET, May 12, 2020
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8:33 a.m. ET, May 11, 2020

CDC director self-quarantining after exposure to person at the White House who tested positive

From CNN's Wesley Bruer and Jeremy Diamond

Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks about the novel coronavirus during a briefing at the White House on April 22.
Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks about the novel coronavirus during a briefing at the White House on April 22. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will self-quarantine for two weeks after he was exposed to a person at the White House who tested positive for Covid-19, a CDC spokesperson confirmed to CNN.

The Washington Post first reported Redfield's action.

"CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield has been determined to have had a low risk exposure on May 6 to a person at the White House who has COVID-19. He is feeling fine, and has no symptoms. He will be teleworking for the next two weeks," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson noted that "in the event Dr. Redfield must go to the White House to fulfill any responsibilities as part of White House Coronavirus Task Force work, he will follow the safety practices set out by the CDC for those who may have been exposed."

"Those guidelines call for Dr. Redfield and anyone working on the Task Force at the White House to have their temperature taken and screened for symptoms each day, wear a face covering, and distance themselves from others," the spokesperson said.

Officials will not identify the person to whom Redfield was exposed.

White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere declined to confirm the report that Redfield will self-quarantine, but he said the physician to the President and White House operations officials "continue to work closely to ensure every precaution is taken to keep the President, First Family and the entire White House Complex safe and healthy."

10:38 a.m. ET, May 11, 2020

White House Covid-19 cases contradict Trump's message on opening

Analysis by Stephen Collinson

President Donald Trump meets with senior military leaders and members of his national security team at the White House on May 9.
President Donald Trump meets with senior military leaders and members of his national security team at the White House on May 9. Patrick Semansky/AP

The White House Covid-19 outbreak is undermining President Donald Trump's narrative that it's safe to open up the country and that diagnostic testing is of limited importance.

The news of three top health officials, all members of the administration's coronavirus task force, self-quarantining in some form after one of Trump's valets and another West Wing aide tested positive is jarring alongside Trump's desire to move on from the pandemic and to concentrate on the staggering economic dimension of the crisis.

The latest developments pose an essential question: If people around Trump are not protected from the virus in the most highly secured workplace in the country, how can it be safe for anyone else to go back to work?

It's not, and Trump knows it. He's worried that aides contracting the virus will undercut his message that the outbreak is fading, according to a person who spoke to him. He's asked why his valets weren't ordered to wear masks before this week, according to the person, even though that's the example he himself has set. And Trump has told people he doesn't want to be near anyone who hasn't been tested, according to the person who spoke to the President, CNN's Kevin Liptak reported.

But most Americans -- whom Trump hopes will contribute to opening the economy that is so crucial for his reelection campaign -- will not have access to the aggressive repeated testing and contact tracing now in place in the White House. Trump has argued that testing should primarily be up to governors to sort out. He has also repeatedly downplayed the importance of testing even though experts say that it is critical to establishing the penetration of the virus and to preventing new waves of infection as normal life begins to resume.

The discovery of the virus in Trump's inner sanctum comes at a moment when the White House has all but stopped offering medical and scientific information to the public in televised public briefings — furthering the impression that it wants to pivot away from the crisis, even when infections are rising in many states that are opening.

In the middle of the worst public health crisis for 100 years, officials like Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci have become far less visible. The coronavirus task force briefings have been replaced by media trolling sessions by new White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

However, Trump and so-far-unidentified senior administration officials are expected to hold a press briefing on testing on Monday afternoon.

Read the full report here.