WASHINGTON | US President Donald Trump has tested negative for COVID-19 “several days in a row” using a rapid test, the White House doctor said on Monday.
In a particularly confused statement, Dr Sean Conley said Donald Trump had been declared negative by an insensitive test, but not by the standard test used daily by hundreds of thousands of Americans, implying that he was still positive in these so-called “PCR” tests.
“In response to your request on the President’s most recent COVID-19 tests, I can inform you that he has been declared negative several days in a row using [le test] Abbott BinaxNOW, ”said Dr. Sean Conley in a letter made public by the White House.
These so-called antigenic tests are generally less sensitive than traditional molecular tests (PCR).
According to the president’s doctor, who does not specify the days when the tests were carried out, these were not the only indicators that were used to “determine the president’s current negative status”.
Still according to the same source, all the data collected allowed the medical team to come to the conclusion “that the president is not contagious”.
The brief statement came out as the president was on his Air Force One plane to fly to Florida, where he is scheduled to attend a campaign meeting.