WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has tested negative for COVID-19 on consecutive days and is no longer "infectious to others," the White House doctor announced Monday.
The development came as Trump was already on his way to Florida for a campaign rally. It's the first stop in a busy week that will include events in Pennsylvania, Iowa, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
In a memo released Monday, Trump's doctor, Navy Cmdr. Sean Conley, said the president was tested using a rapid antigen test from Abbott Laboratories. He did not say when Trump was tested. He added that they also considered other clinical and lab data to come up with their determination.
"This comprehensive data, in concert with the CDC's guidelines for removal of transmission-based precautions, have informed our medical team's assessment that the President is not infectious to others," Conley wrote in his letter shared by White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
The president, eager to return to campaigning, has proclaimed himself cured and says he is now “immune” to the virus — claims that are impossible to prove given limitations in what scientists know about the coronavirus.
The White House has steadfastly refused to say when President Trump's last negative coronavirus test was before his Oct. 2 diagnosis. He was admitted to Walter Reed military hospital that night and released on Oct. 5.
Campaign officials have signaled that Trump will be traveling nearly every day the rest of the campaign, and sometimes making more than one stop, an aggressive schedule for a 74-year-old who was hospitalized just days ago.