Trump says she was at home ‘out of an abundance of caution’ while White House says Dutton was asymptomatic during meeting

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Ivanka Trump worked from home on Friday but will not self-quarantine, despite coming into close contact with the Australian home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, who on Friday confirmed he had tested positive for coronavirus.

Dutton released a statement late on Friday confirming that he had gone into self-isolation after testing positive for the virus.

The home affairs minister had recently returned from a trip to the US where he held meetings with senior Trump administration officials including Ivanka Trump, the US attorney-general, William Barr, and officials from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

In a statement, the White House said it was aware Dutton had contracted the virus, but that senior officials would not need to quarantine because the minister was “asymptomatic during the interaction”.

Australia in the US 🇦🇺🇺🇸 (@AusintheUS) Yesterday 🇦🇺 Home Affairs @PeterDutton_MP joins @IvankaTrump, Attorney General Barr & our five eyes partners 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇨🇦🇳🇿 to fight online child exploitation. We heard from 9 brave survivors & announced principles that technology companies should implement to protect children online pic.twitter.com/3ifeJnGJPI

Instead the president’s daughter and senior adviser Ivanka, who was photographed next to Dutton during the trip, worked from home on Friday “out of an abundance of caution and until guidance was given”.

“The White House is aware that Mr Dutton tested positive for Covid-19,” the White House said.

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“He was asymptomatic during the interaction. Exposures from the case were assessed and the White House Medical Unit confirmed, in accordance with CDC guidance, that Ivanka is exhibiting no symptoms and does not need to self-quarantine.

“She worked from home today out of an abundance of caution until guidance was given.”

A spokesman for the attorney general William Barr also said the Attorney General would work from home on Friday but was not showing coronavirus symptoms.

“He is staying home today and has consulted with CDC,” Department of Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement.

“CDC is not recommending he be tested at this point.”

Other officials including a senior counsellor to the president, Kellyanne Conway, said she had been advised she did not need to quarantine.

“White House Medical Unit (WHMU) informed me earlier that Mr Dutton was asymptomatic during the interaction,” Conway wrote on Twitter.

Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) UPDATE: White House Medical Unit (WHMU) informed me earlier that Mr. Dutton was asymptomatic during the interaction. Exposures from the case were assessed and the WHMU confirmed, in accordance with CDC guidance, that I exhibited no symptoms & need not self-quarantine. https://t.co/v06DHTfQHG

“Exposures from the case were assessed and the WHMU confirmed, in accordance with CDC guidance, that I exhibited no symptoms & need not self-quarantine.”

But New Zealand cabinet minister Tracey Martin, who met with Dutton during a Five-Eyes partners meeting in Washington DC, has reportedly gone into self-isolation following his diagnosis.

A spokesperson for Martin told Radio New Zealand that while the minister and New Zealand First had shown no symptoms, she had been tested for the virus and was self-isolating until test results were returned.

Martin reportedly did not shake Dutton’s hand when she was overseas.

On Tuesday Dutton attended a meeting with Australian cabinet members including the prime minister, Scott Morrison. He was also was part of a discussion of the national security committee of cabinet on Thursday via a video link.

However Morrison said late on Friday that he did not intend to be tested and that no one in the cabinet would be required to self-isolate. The prime minister did cancel plans to attend a football match in Sydney on Saturday.

Speaking to radio station 2GB on Saturday, Dutton, said he woke with symptoms including a fever, sore throat and a slight shortness of breath on Friday morning.

But he said that he’d spoken to Queensland Health authorities on Friday night who had begun contact tracing back to Wednesday morning and were not concerned about his earlier contacts.

His wife and children had not displayed symptoms but were self-isolating.

“Their advice to me is they’re concerned with people that I’ve had close contact with since the morning of the 11th. So beyond that, it’s not further back, there’s some speculation about my visit to the White House etcetera but all the medical advice says there’s no issue in relation to that period or even cabinet earlier in the week. That’s the very clear medical advice that I got from Queensland Health.”

Dutton is not the first person to be diagnosed with the coronavirus to have recently come into contact with senior members of the US government.

On Friday the White House said the president, Donald Trump, had no plans to be tested for coronavirus or go into self-quarantine after attending events last weekend with a senior Brazilian official who tested positive for the illness.

Fabio Wajngarten, a communications secretary to Jair Bolsonaro, met with Trump during a visit by the Brazilian president to Florida.

On Thursday the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said both Trump and the vice-president Mike Pence, who was also at the meeting, had “almost no interactions” with Wajngarten and therefore did not need to be tested themselves.

But during the visit Wajngarten shared on Instagram a picture of himself, Trump, Pence and Brazilian TV presenter Alvaro Garnero, while in one video, Wajngarten (wearing glasses) was seen just behind Bolsonaro and Trump.