The COVID-19 outbreak at the White House

Since President Donald Trump announced early Friday that he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 and were experiencing symptoms, the list of positive COVID-19 cases connected to the White House has grown. As of yesterday evening, 14 people who were in close contact with Trump or White House officials have tested positive. 

The president has been a patient at Walter Reed National Medical Center since Friday evening. Saturday evening, he released a four minute-long video in which he says he is “starting to feel good” and is “doing well.”

White House physician Sean Conley said in a press briefing yesterday morning that Trump was "72 hours into the diagnosis now." It’s since been clarified that Conley was referring to the president being in his third day fighting the virus, with a diagnosis made late Thursday night, and symptoms continuing into Friday and Saturday.

During the same Saturday morning press conference at Walter Reed, Conley said Trump was “doing very well.” But White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told the Associated Press on Saturday that the president’s vitals over the previous 24 hours were "very concerning" and that the next 48 hours would be critical for his care.

Eight individuals who tested positive attended a White House event last Saturday at which Trump announced his Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, who has since tested negative. The event might have been ground-zero for the virus spreading to the president.

On this episode, USA TODAY White House correspondent John Fritze, Congressional reporter Nicholas Wu, foreign affairs correspondent Deirdre Shesgreen, and vice presidential correspondent Maureen Groppe help us make sense of the latest coronavirus news surrounding the White House.

Find the latest updates on the health of President Trump and lawmakers in Washington, D.C. on our live blog, and check out our responses to readers’ questions.