By Eric Mack From Newsmax

White House officials have reduced the number of seats at the coronavirus task force briefings after a member of the press corps has contracted the coronavirus.

“The individual was at the White House on March 9, 11, 16 and 18,” White House Correspondents Association president and ABC White House correspondent Jonathan Karl wrote in an email, according to the N.Y. Post.

There were fewer reporters permitted into the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Monday, where both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence deliver daily briefings amid the global pandemic.

“We ask again that all members who can stay home or work remotely please do so,” Karl’s email read, per the Post. “Please do not come to the White House if you do not have a work space or an assigned seat on that day.”

The White House physicians check the temperature of staff and others when they enter the White House grounds and the West Wing, turns away those with temperatures deemed abnormal.

Both Trump and Pence have been tested for coronavirus, which have come up negative.

A Pence aide had tested positive last week.

“You’re actually sitting too close,” Trump told reporters at a briefing last week. “Really, we should probably get rid of about 75, 80% of you.”

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