Melania Trump said Wednesday that her son, 14-year-old Barron Trump, had tested positive for the coronavirus but exhibited no symptoms.
The White House initially said the teenager had tested negative for the virus after both of his parents, the first lady and President Trump, tested positive earlier this month.
The initial negative test was a “great relief,” the first lady said in a statement Wednesday. But she said her “fear came true” when he was tested again and it came back positive.
“Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms,” she said.
The president told reporters Barron is doing “fine” while leaving the White House Wednesday afternoon en route to a re-election campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa.
While the president was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three days as he underwent treatment for the virus, the first lady remained at the White House for what she described as a “more natural” course of treatment that included vitamins and “healthy food.”
“I was very fortunate as my diagnosis came with minimal symptoms, though they hit me all at once and it seemed to be a roller coaster of symptoms in the days after,” she said in the essay posted by the White House detailing her bout with the disease. “I experienced body aches, a cough and headaches, and felt extremely tired most of the time.”
The first lady described it as an “unfamiliar feeling” to be the patient “instead of a person trying to encourage our nation to stay healthy and safe.” She said the experience left her “in awe of caretakers and first responders everywhere.”
The first lady said she has now tested negative for the virus and hopes to “resume my duties as soon as I can.”
As the nation continues to grapple with the virus that has killed 216,000 Americans and infected nearly 7.9 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, the first lady said she took time during her own battle with COVID-19 to reflect on the “hundreds of thousands of people across our country who have been impacted by this illness that infects people with no discrimination.”
She also encouraged people to “continue to live the healthiest life they can.”
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