Mar 13 , 2020. 4 hours ago – 05:41 – KYODO NEWS

WASHINGTON – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s press secretary, who recently met U.S. President Donald Trump, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the Brazilian presidential office said Thursday.

The White House quickly played down concerns that Trump may have been infected, saying that the president had “almost no interactions with the individual” and requires no testing. But the virus scare is gripping the nation, disrupting businesses and entertainment events ranging from Broadway performances to Major League Baseball games.

Trump, who has canceled some of his own campaign rallies for his re-election bid in November, put on a brave face as he spoke to reporters Thursday at the White House, saying that the virus eventually “is going to go away.”

On his possible contact with the Brazilian press aide, Trump said he was “not concerned,” although he acknowledged having dinner with the entire Brazilian delegation that accompanied Bolsonaro at the U.S. president’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida earlier this month.

“We did nothing very unusual. We sat next to each other for a period of time,” Trump said.

The Brazilian official had posted online an image of himself standing next to Trump and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. The official developed flu-like symptoms and tested positive for the virus after returning to Brazil.

With the United States seeing more than 1,000 infection cases and the World Health Organization calling the disease a pandemic, the Broadway League said Thursday that theater performances will be suspended through April 12 at the request of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is also shutting down for the time being, while the U.N. headquarters in the city has also been closed to the public and guided tours have been suspended from Wednesday to the end of March.

Major League Baseball said Thursday that it has decided to suspend spring training games and to delay the start of the 2020 regular season by at least two weeks due to the “national emergency” created by the epidemic.

In Washington, the U.S. Capitol as well as House of Representatives and Senate office buildings are temporarily closing to the general public until April 1, according to Congress.

The move came as a Washington staff member for a senator was reportedly found to have tested positive for coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection of a congressional worker.

Some members of Congress have also recently been “self-quarantining,” meaning they are staying at home for a certain period, after being exposed to an individual who tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

International gatherings have also been affected, with the Treasury Department saying Thursday that the April meeting of the finance chiefs from the Group of Seven industrialized countries will be a videoconference instead of an in-person gathering in Philadelphia.

The G-7 foreign ministerial meeting planned in Pittsburgh on March 24-25 has also been switched to a virtual format.

As of Thursday, more than 1,200 people in over 40 of the country’s 50 states and the U.S. capital have tested positive for the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 35 patients with the virus have died, it said.

CR: KYODO NEWS