Barron Trump, the teenage son of US President Donald Trump, had contracted coronavirus, First Lady Melania Trump revealed in a statement on Wednesday. This comes amid the US President’s constant efforts to downplay and divert the attention from the coronavirus days ahead of the election. 

The 14-year-old had tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago, Melania wrote, adding, “Naturally my mind went immediately to our son.” The First Lady wrote that Barron, who goes to a private school near Washington, did not experience symptoms and has since tested negative. 

At a rally in Iowa on Wednesday, Trump said, “Barron Trump, you know, he had the Corona 19.” The President added, “He had it such a short period of time I don’t even think he knew he had it.”

“Barron’s fine,” Trump told reporters earlier at the White House as he left for the rally in Iowa.

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The US President, who on October 2 had announced that he and the First Lady have tested positive for COVID-19, resumed his re-election campaign on Monday. White House doctor Sean Conley said that Trump, who spent three nights in a hospital, had tested negative for the coronavirus. 

After recovering from COVID-19, Trump had on Monday said, “I feel so powerful. I’ll walk in there, I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women, just give you a big fat kiss.”

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Trump and his Democrat challenger Joe Biden on Thursday will hold simultaneous town hall events, which will come as a replacement to the second presidential between the two contenders. The second presidential debate, which was scheduled to take place on October 15, was cancelled after the debate commission proposed for a virtual format as an aftermath of Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis, but the US President refused to do.