We still don't know the last time Trump tested negative for COVID-19

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We still don't know the last time Trump tested negative for COVID-19
White House physician Sean Conley answers questions surrounded by other doctors, during an update on the condition of President Donald Trump, on October 5, 2020, at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
  • The timeline of President Donald Trump's coronavirus infection is still unclear.
  • When pressed by reporters on the last time Trump tested negative for coronavirus, White House physician Sean Conley evaded the question.
  • "I don't want to go backwards," he said during a press briefing on Monday.
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The White House again refused to clear-up confusion about President Donald Trump's coronavirus infection timeline on Monday afternoon.

During a press briefing, reporters pressed White House physician Dr. Sean Conley on when the president last tested negative. Conley repeatedly declined to answer.

"I don't want to go backwards," he said.

The dismissal comes after Conley dodged similar questions over the weekend, telling reporters: "We're not going to go into that. We're just tracking his clinical course and providing the best care we can."

It also adds to a slew of missing and contradictory information from White House officials and Trump's doctors on his health since he announced he fell ill with COVID-19 last Friday.

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Knowing when Trump contracted the disease would offer a better sense of how to handle contract tracing matters for the dozens of his officials that he's come into contact with over the past week.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and two of her deputies became the latest additions in Trump's orbit to test positive for the virus on Monday.

Further details on Trump's diagnosis would also help fill missing gaps about what stage his infection is in, according to health experts.

Conley declared on Monday that Trump is recovering well, despite being relatively early in his treatment process, though he noted that he "may not be entirely out of the woods yet." The president is set to be discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday evening and will move to a medical unit in the White House that will be staffed around the clock, according to Conley.

The president's physician remained vague about the specifics of Trump's condition. "HIPAA kind of precludes me from going into too much depth," he said, citing patient protection privacy rules.

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