President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for COVID-19.

"Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!" he said in a tweet on Friday. 

Trump and Melania took coronavirus tests just hours after the White House announced that senior aide Hope Hicks had contracted the virus after traveling with the president several times this week.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump confirmed that Hicks has tested positive for COVID-19.

The 74-year-old president then announced on Twitter after the interview that he and his 50-year-old wife will start their "quarantine process," while waiting for their results.

Hicks was in frequent contact with Trump recently. She traveled with him on Air Force One to and from the first presidential debate in Cleveland on Tuesday.

She also went with Trump to a campaign rally in Minnesota on Wednesday, according to a report. Hicks traveled with the president also include boarding Marine One, the presidential helicopter.

So far, the 31-year-old adviser to the president was the closest aide to Trump to test positive for COVID-19. 

The president has held campaign rallies across the country for months. Many of which are outdoors but some have been indoors. The most recent was in Minnesota on a Wednesday night.

Trump also traveled to New Jersey on Thursday for a fundraiser. A scheduled rally in Orlando, Florida on Friday was canceled as the president, and his wife will have to quarantine for treatment. 

Hicks is one of Trump's longest-service aides. She was part of the president's original campaign team in 2015. She took on the role of communications director and left the White House in 2018 to take a corporate executive job in Fox.

In February her return was announced by the White House, saying she will take the role as counselor to the president and aide to senior adviser Jared Kushner. As Trump seeks reelection, Hicks played a key role in his communications strategy.  

The Trump administration has received backlash over its handling of the pandemic and downplaying its threat. Critics also accused the administration of sowing confusion over wearing a mask that can help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Public health experts said these mixed messages impeded the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It even led to preventable deaths, according to a report.

Trump tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask in July with a caption saying, "many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can't socially distance."

In August, Trump urged Americans to cover their faces in public as a "patriotic" gesture. He also insisted that he did not lie to the American public about the threat of COVID-19. This despite veteran journalist Bob Woodward's claims in March that Trump had been downplaying the virus' potential impact.

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain tested positive for COVID-19 after a Trump rally in Tulsa in June. Cain later died due to the virus.

In the same rally, around eight White House staffers, including Secret Service personnel, tested positive for the virus.

One of Trump's personal valets also tested positive for the coronavirus in May. The said valet works in the West Wing, serving the president his meals, among other duties.

Health officials continue to monitor COVID-19 cases in the U.S. As of Oct. 1, there were more than seven million COVID-19 cases in the country with more than 205,000 deaths.

Meanwhile, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said its potential COVID-19 vaccine would be able to file a Biologics License Application with the Food and Drug Administration by late January or early February of 2021. 

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