October 2: Trump's Covid diagnosis

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro wished President Trump a speedy recovery in a message posted on his Facebook account as Trump was being flown to Walter Reed hospital.

Writing alongside an image of Marine One lifting off from the White House, Bolsonaro wrote, "With faith in God, they will soon be recovered and the work in running their country and their re-election campaign will not be harmed."

"You will win and leave stronger, for the good of the USA and the world." Bolsonaro added.

Bolsonaro spent months downplaying the threat from coronavirus, dismissing it as just a "little flu" and assuring his compatriots they had little to fear, before himself testing positive for Covid-19 in early July.

The Biden campaign has raised health concerns about the vice presidential debate slated to take place next Wednesday to the Commission on Presidential Debates, in light of President Trump testing positive for Covid-19, a source familiar with those conversations said. 

Amid negotiations with the commission about the terms of the Kamala Harris-Mike Pence face-off, the Biden campaign expressed opposition to the podiums being spaced seven feet apart, and asked that they be 12 feet apart instead, the source said.

The Biden campaign sees the podium-spacing issue as a “very serious concern,” the source added.

The President's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump called her father "a warrior" following his arrival at Walter Reed medical center this afternoon.

Trump was flown there aboard Marine One after saying he contracted Covid-19.

Read the tweet:

The Trump campaign has notified attendees of Thursday's fundraiser at his Bedminster golf club that the President has tested positive for coronavirus.

The email reiterated that attendees were not allowed within six feet of the President, per the campaign's protocol.  

The email went on to encourage attendees to contact their medical provider if they or their loved ones develop Covid-19 symptoms. It did not make any mention of quarantining or self-isolation but did recommend attendees visit the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website.

The email was sent early Friday afternoon.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent “warm greetings” and a message of sympathy to President Trump after he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for Covid-19, according to North Korean state news agency KCNA.

Kim said he “sincerely hoped they would be recovered as soon as possible” and “he hoped they will surely overcome” the disease, KCNA reported.

The message was sent prior to Trump taking Marine One to Walter Reed medical center for Covid-19 symptoms.

Anyone who has been in President Trump’s inner circle should be tested for coronavirus infection and should not decide they’re clear just because they have tested negative for the virus one time, an infectious diseases chief said Friday. 

Dr. John Mellors, head of infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said he would expect more people associated with Trump to test positive for coronavirus in the coming days.

Mellors added: “Everybody needs to be tested. Everybody who has had contact with him needs to be tested.”

One negative coronavirus test does not mean people should not quarantine or take other precautions to protect those around them, Mellors added. Tests are not 100% accurate.

“They ought to do some very quick contact tracing and isolation to stop the spread in the government,” said Mellors, one of the world’s top experts in the treatment and spread of the AIDS virus, who has helped organize UPMC’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“They are going to have to follow the science now. They should have followed it all along,” Mellors added. “This is an absolute wakeup call. Stop fiddling around and making this a political issue. Wear the masks. They work. It’s that simple. There should be federal and state mandates to wear a mask."

Mellors also disputed White House physician Dr. Jesse Schonau’s statement that Vice President Mike Pence has tested negative for coronavirus and thus does not need to quarantine because Pence was not a close contact of anyone infected.

“If he was in the Oval Office with Trump in the last week, then he was exposed,” Mellors said. 

A source on the White House Coronavirus Task Force tells CNN that they are "in the dark" on the President’s health developments.

In his first tweet since announcing he had tested positive for Covid-19, President Trump shared words of thanks and encouragement during a short 18-second long video.

Watch the video:

President Trump was spooked after he tested positive for coronavirus and has become increasingly alarmed by his diagnosis as he developed symptoms, like a fever, overnight, according to a person familiar with his reaction.