Worker in building housing White House staff tests positive for coronavirus: NBC News

Workmen erect a protective fence around the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on June 5, 2020. PHOTO: REUTERS

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - A cafeteria employee who works in a building where some White House staffers have offices has tested positive for the coronavirus, NBC News reported on Wednesday (July 22).

The White House is conducting contact tracing after the worker in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is next to the White House, tested positive, NBC News said.

"The White House Medical Unit has done contact tracing and determined that the risk of re-transmission is low," a spokesman for General Services Administration (GSA), which manages the Eisenhower Building, told NBC News.

The White House declined a request for comment. GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The cafeteria is operated by a government contractor, NBC News said. "All proper protocols were in place by the vendor including masks, gloves, plastic shielding at check-out, and no dine-in service," the GSA spokesman told NBC News.

President Donald Trump has said he is tested for the coronavirus every two or three days.

In May, the White House announced that a member of the US military who works at the White House as a valet had tested positive.

Earlier this month, a reporter who had attended briefings at the White House also tested positive for the virus.

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