President Donald Trump said Friday he's "most likely" going to get tested for the coronavirus after waving off the sensitive issue for days, blatantly contradicting his own assessment of who should be eligible for such screenings.
After declaring the worsening virus a national emergency at the White House, Trump was pressed by a reporter as to why he hasn't been tested even though a widely circulated photo showed he interacted closely last weekend with a Brazilian government official who has the respiratory infection.
"I didn't say I wasn't going to be tested," Trump responded.
Asked whether he will then, in fact, be tested, the president said, "most likely, yeah."
"Not for that reason," Trump said of interacting with the Brazilian official, "but I think I will do it anyway. Fairly soon, we're working out a schedule."
Earlier in the same press conference, Trump said he had decided not to get tested because he wasn't experiencing any symptoms.
"We don't want people without symptoms to go and do the test," the president said.
Despite the mixed messages from Trump, federal health officials say people can have the virus without displaying symptoms.
For that reason, two Republican senators who interacted with the same Brazilian official as Trump announced earlier this week that they would undergo testing and quarantine themselves to prevent spread.
