Coronavirus: Today show staffer tests positive for Covid-19, says Savannah Guthrie

Craig Melvin and Al Roker taking morning off ‘out of an abundance of caution’

A staffer on the Today show has tested positive for Covid-19, Savannah Guthrie has announced.

The host shared the update with viewers on Monday morning.

“Personal note, for this show: last night we learned that a colleague of ours on the third hour of Today has tested positive for Covid-19, the novel coronavirus,” Guthrie told viewers during a segment with Hoda Kotb.

She said that Craig Melvin and Al Roker, who both work on the third hour, had taken the morning off “out of an abundance of caution”, “so we can trace their contacts, see what’s going on with them”.

“We promise to keep you posted. Both are fine right now. They feel good. But caution is the order of the day,” Guthrie added.

Guthrie’s announcement came hours after it was announced that public schools in New York City, where the Today show is filmed, would close until at least 20 April.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has also announced he is to sign an order on Monday limiting the city’s 27,000 restaurants and bars to takeout and delivery only.

The order, which would take effect on Tuesday, would also shut down all nightclubs, cinemas and concert venues.

De Blasio took the actions on a day that New York City’s death toll from the virus rose to five and the number of infected residents multiplied.

The mayor had, for days, said that closing schools was a last resort.

Additional reporting by agencies