Coronavirus: White House will test anyone who comes in contact with Trump and Pence

'I think I took it, really, out of curiosity' president said of rapid Covid-19 test as governors seek more test kits

The White House will give a coronavirus test to anyone who is expected to come into contact with Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence, an administration official confirmed Friday.

The move comes a day after the president revealed he had taken his third Covid-19 test, and again tested negative. He took the first after coming into contact with a Brazilian official who later tested positive and the second after an aide to Mr Pence came down with the deadly bug. But the third?

"I think I took it, really, out of curiosity to see how quickly it worked and fast it worked, and it's a lot easier," he told reporters of a new "rapid" version of the test. "I've done them both. And the second one is much more pleasant ... I can tell you that. Much more pleasant."

A source with knowledge of the testing mandate told The Independent "this is being done out of an abundance of caution to protect their safety."

Mr Trump, during his Thursday coronavirus press briefing, lauded the speed of the new test.

"It took me literally a minute to take it. And it took me, I guess it was 14 or 15 minutes," he said. "I went to work. I didn't wait for it, but [a doctor] said it took 14 minutes, or something, to come up with a conclusion. And it said, 'The president tested negative for COVID-19.'"

Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said the White House medical team confirmed the requirement for people "expected to be in close proximity to either of them" to receive a test.

The idea, Mr Deere said, is "to evaluate for pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic carriers status to limit inadvertent transmission."

Mr Pence on Thursday evening said, as of that time, 1.3m tests "have been performed" on US soil.

Deborah Birx, a top White House coronavirus task force member, said "we're seeing, finally, testing is improving."

"More testing being done. Still a high level of negatives in states without hotspots, allowing them to do more of the surveillance and containment," she said, referring to efforts to isolate the virus.

But, she made clear, those hotspots are areas of high infection rates.

"We do have two states that do have 35 per cent positives, and that's New York and New Jersey. So that confirms very clearly that that's a very clear and important hot zone," Ms Birx said. "Louisiana, though, has 26 per cent of their tests are positive. Michigan, Connecticut, Indiana, Georgia, Illinois - so that should tell you where the next hotspots are coming - are at 15 per cent test positive. And then Colorado, [Washington] DC, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts are at 13 per cent.

"There's a significant number of states still under 10 per cent: Everyone that I didn't discuss," she said. "California and Washington remain steady at an 8 per cent rate. So what we're seeing finally is testing improving."

But Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have panned the administration for what they call a slow response, including on getting ample testing kits to the areas that need them most.

Governor Steve Bullock of Montana, a Democrat, told the president on a teleconference earlier this week that "we don't have adequate tests," according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times.

"Literally we are one day away, if we don't get test kits from the CDC," he said of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that we wouldn't be able to do testing in Montana,"