The University of Notre Dame’s president announced Friday he tested positive for the coronavirus less than a week after he attended a White House event without wearing a mask.
The Rev. John Jenkins sent an email to university students and staff saying he was tested after finding out a colleague with whom he has been in regular contact tested positive for COVID-19.
“My symptoms are mild and I will continue work from home,” Jenkins said in the message provided by a university spokesman.
Earlier this week, Jenkins apologized for not wearing a mask during Saturday’s Rose Garden ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee who is a Notre Dame graduate and law professor.
Trump also announced early Friday that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, tested positive for the virus.
Jenkins faced criticism from students after pictures surfaced online of him shaking hands and sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with people without masks at the ceremony.
“I regret my error of judgment in not wearing a mask during the ceremony and by shaking hands with a number of people in the Rose Garden,” Jenkins wrote in a Monday letter to students, faculty and staff. “I failed to lead by example, at a time when I’ve asked everyone else in the Notre Dame community to do so.”
Jenkins said Monday that he was in quarantine. His message Friday said he was “entering an extended period of isolation” as directed by university and local health officials.
