President Donald Trump has said that his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for coronavirus.
The president confirmed in a Sunday afternoon tweet that the former New York mayor had tested positive.
The 76-year-old was was exhibiting some symptoms and was admitted to Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington, sources said.
Mr Giuliani has travelled extensively to battleground states in recent weeks in an effort to help Mr Trump challenge his election defeat.
Mr Trump wished him a speedy recovery.
“Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!” Mr Trump wrote in his tweet.
Mr Giuliani attended a hearing at the Georgia Capitol on Thursday where he went without a mask for several hours. Several state senators also did not wear masks at the hearing.
On Wednesday night, the lawyer was in Lansing, Michigan, to testify in a highly unusual four-hour legislative hearing in which he pushed Republican lawmakers to ignore the certification of Joe Biden’s Michigan victory and appoint electors for Mr Trump.
He did not wear a mask, nor did lawyer Jenna Ellis, who was sitting next to him. At one point, he asked one of his witnesses — a Detroit election worker — if she would be comfortable removing her mask but legislators said they could hear her.
Before the hearing, Mr Giuliani and Michigan Republican Party chairman Laura Cox — both maskless — did a virtual briefing for Republican activists.
On Monday, Mr Giuliani went to Phoenix where he met with Republican legislators for a lengthy hearing in which he was also maskless. The Arizona Republican Party tweeted a photo of Mr Giuliani and several state GOP lawmakers standing shoulder-to-shoulder without masks.
The Arizona legislature announced on Sunday, after Mr Giuliani’s diagnosis became public, that it would close for a week out of caution “for recent cases and concerns relating to Covid-19”.
Mr Giuliani made an appearance earlier on Sunday on Fox News to speak about his legal challenges in several states on behalf of Mr Trump.
Late on Sunday night Mr Giuliani tweeted that he was “getting great care and feeling good” and “recovering quickly”.
Thank you to all my friends and followers for all the prayers and kind wishes.
I’m getting great care and feeling good.
Recovering quickly and keeping up with everything.— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) December 7, 2020
The diagnosis comes more than a month after Mr Trump lost his re-election bid and more than two months after Mr Trump was ill with the virus in early October.
Since then, a flurry of administration officials and others in Mr Trump’s orbit have also tested positive, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development.
Last month, Mr Giuliani’s son, Andrew Giuliani, a special assistant to Mr Trump, said he tested positive for coronavirus.
“I am experiencing mild symptoms, and am following all appropriate protocols, including being in quarantine and conducting contact tracing,” the younger Giuliani said in a November 20 tweet disclosing his Covid-19 positive test.
The extraordinary spread among Mr Trump’s associates underscores the cavalier approach the president has taken to a virus that has now killed more than 280,000 people in the US alone.
Those infected also include the vice president, his chief of staff, the White House press secretary, advisers Hope Hicks and Stephen Miller, as well as Mr Trump’s campaign manager and the chair of the Republican National Committee.
Mr Trump spent the final days of his campaign trying to persuade the American public that the virus was receding, and repeatedly claimed it would miraculously “disappear” after November 3. Instead, the country is experiencing a record-breaking spike in infections.
White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr Deborah Birx on Sunday offered tacit criticism of Mr Trump’s attitude on the virus during an interview on NBC.
Asked about Mr Trump and other administration members flouting public health experts’ warnings to avoid large gatherings and calls to wear masks, Dr Birx replied that some leaders are “parroting” myths and called the pandemic “the worst event that this country will face”.
“And I think our job is to constantly say those are myths, they are wrong and you can see the evidence-base,” Dr Birx added.
