US President Donald Trump might have caused a coronavirus outbreak in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy has said. According to reports, Murphy said on Monday that the US president's fundraising event held in Bedminster last week, which took place after Hope Hicks tested positive for the coronavirus, is currently under investigation.
The governor tweeted that the state is looking into reports that the event that took place on Thursday may not have complied with the state coronavirus rules. The event took place hours before Trump announced that he and the First Lady tested positive for the virus. "Any failures to comply with our emergency orders will be referred to @NewJerseyOAG for a follow-up," Murphy stated.
Trump and COVID-19
The governor confirmed on 'CBS This Morning' that the office of the state's attorney general is looking into the event that was apparently held indoors. "This entire event and everything associated with it is troubling, and it is being followed up on best we can and as aggressively as we can here in New Jersey," the governor said, according to The Hill.
The New Jersey Department of Health, along with the Somerset County Department of Health, gave a statement on Sunday that states that the White House and the golf club's management provided a list of around 206 attendees at the event. The state is conducting contract tracing for those 206 people, as per the governor. He also asked the attendees to get tested after around five to seven days of the event and also to self-quarantine. Murphy also said that according to him currently there are no cases.
"As they say, the virus doesn't care who you are, New Jersey doesn't care who you are — a group of folks from out of state coming in knowingly having been exposed to someone who is COVID positive is really, really frustrating," Murphy said in the interview.
The US president Trump got admitted to the hospital on Friday after he started witnessing symptoms of the deadly disease that has claimed the lives of over one million people globally. He came out of the hospital on Monday evening and returned to the White House.
