US: FDA commissioner to self quarantine after coming in contact with COVID-19 patient

The commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn will reportedly be self quarantining for the next 14 days as he recently came in contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus. While speaking to an international media outlet, Michael Felberbaum, FDA spokesman, said that Hahn wrote in a staff note that he will be following the CDC guidelines and self-quarantining for the next two weeks. Felberbaum also reportedly informed that Hahn has already taken a diagnostic test and tested negative for the virus, however, he still will be following the CDC guidelines.

While it is still unclear if people on the White House Coronavirus task force will still go into quarantine, US President’s daughter Ivanka Trump’s personal assistant has reportedly tested positive for the deadly virus. However, Ivanka and her husband dared Kushner have tested negative for coronavirus. 

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In another case, the press secretary of US Vice President Mike Pence, Katie Miller also tested positive of COVID-19 disease on May 8. A day before that, US military member who works as one of the personal valets of US President was confirmed to have contracted the deadly virus on May 7. 

US President Donald Trump's personal valet was the first White House official to test positive for the deadly disease on Thursday. After the naval officer who serves as one of the members of his personal valets tested positive for COVID-19, Trump said he would now be tested daily, moving on from his previous regimen of testing once a week. According to reports, the daily testing would also apply to the vice-president Mike Pence and certain high-level White House officials.

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More than 1.3 million confirmed cases

The US is the hardest-hit country globally as it currently has more than 1.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases. The deadly virus has also claimed nearly 78,616 lives in the country. Whit the rapid spread of the virus, governors are still planning to relax social distancing restrictions to revive the economy of the country. 

While several people are criticising Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic, Trump has been lauding his administration and appreciating their work. Trump also allowed states to reopen ‘safely and quickly’. Several states, including Tennessee, Georgia and Alaska also began opening for some dine-in places with rules including temperature checkpoints and precautions for possible contact tracing. 

(Image: @sciam/Twitter)

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