Tennessee Pastor Tests Positive for COVID-19 Shortly After Meeting with Trump

By Staff, Agencies

Pastor Perry Cleek of the Lighthouse Missionary Baptist Church in Jonesborough, Tennessee, has tested positive for COVID-19 not long after attending a roundtable at the White House with President Donald Trump.

“It started with a really severe cough that lasted two or three days but it’s mostly gone", Cleek told local media, saying that he also lost his sense of taste and smell.

He took note that prior to the White House event, everyone was tested and his result was negative. The pastor also said that he did not approach the president.

It is unclear how Cleek became exposed to the virus. Currently, he is in self-quarantine at his house. In-person service in his church was cancelled, but pastor hopes to preach a sermon via livestream on Sunday.

“My biggest fear is that I’m going to get a phone call that I’ve passed it along to some of our precious elderly people or even someone in my own family,” he said. “It is a serious illness … and it is very contagious.”

The story of Cleek's church earlier donating $1,000 to every Jonesborough Department of Public Safety employee went viral, and the pastor was invited to a roundtable at the White House.