The White House will conduct coronavirus tests on all journalists slated to attend Thursday’s coronavirus task force briefing as a precautionary measure, the White House Correspondents’ Association announced.
“This is happening today in light of the news yesterday that a member of the White House press corps who was at the White House on Tuesday is experienc[ing] symptoms consistent with coronavirus,” said the organization’s President Jonathan Karl, adding that the journalist’s coronavirus test results were expected later in the day.
The organization, along with the White House, have been incrementally stepping up security protocols as the outbreak has continued its swift spread throughout the country. Last month, the WHCA began to crack down on social distancing, issuing temporary restrictions on the number of journalists allowed in the briefing room each day, and even going as far as to expel one news organization for breaching those rules.
In the meantime, the White House has required journalists, like others entering the White House premises, to have their temperatures checked before stepping onto the property. The administration also began conducting temperature checks on journalists before they headed into any room with the president.
On Friday, the White House announced it would be ordering tests for anyone who would be in “close proximity” to the president or vice president, though it said then that mandate did not apply to journalists.
The White House press corps has already faced one coronavirus scare, learning late last month that one member had a “suspected case” of coronavirus, though a test for the illness ultimately came back negative.
The new measures Thursday come after Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, warned Wednesday that the nation’s capital could be among the next hot spots for the disease.
