CLEVELAND, Ohio-President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have both tested positive for the coronavirus just three days after the president and his family members were in Cleveland, Ohio for the First Presidential Debate on Tuesday, the 74-year-old Republican president debating Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as the Nov. 3 presidential election nears.

The president, who has downplayed the necessity of safety protocols and even made fun of Biden during the debate Tuesday for wearing what he says is a large mask relative to the deadly virus, announced his diagnosis on his Twitter account early Friday morning saying " tonight, @FLOTUS tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this together."

Meanwhile, prominent Ohio Republicans who attended the debate, including Congressman Jim Jordan and U.S. Sen Rob Portman of Cincinnati, are scrambling to get tested.

"While he [Portman] is not experiencing any symptoms, out of an abundance of caution, he [Portman] is consulting with his physician and plans to take a COVID-19 test and cancel his scheduled evets for today," said Portman communications spokesperson Emily Benavides said in a statement on Friday.

Trump did not say whether he or the first lady contracted the virus in Cleveland, those attending Cleveland's debate on Tuesday required to test negative before entering the Samson Pavilion at Case Western Reserve University on the main campus of the Cleveland Clinic where the debate was held.

Several of the president's events have been cancelled, including a rally in Florida.

Sources say that with the presidential election only a month away, the president's campaign is in a dither, early voting of which begins in Ohio on Oct. 6.

The president lags behind Biden in national polls by double digits and is losing in most of the swing states.

But the candidates are neck and neck in the pivotal state of Ohio, one of the reasons Cleveland, a largely Black major American city, was asked to host the debate, sources said, notwithstanding that South Bend, Indiana pulled out amid the pandemic, which has vacillated

Cleveland Clinic, just named the second best hospital in the world in U.S. News rankings, co-hosted Tuesday's debate along with CWRU, a private and prominent research university created in 1967.

It was the first of three debates scheduled before the November election and sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Neither the Commission on Presidential Debates nor Cleveland Clinic, the health security advisor to the commission, has commented publicly on whether the two remaining debates will still go forward, the second debate scheduled for Oct. 15 in Miami, and the third on Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic presidential nominee Sen Kamala Harris, the first Black woman to run on a major party presidential ticket in America, are scheduled to debate, Wed., Oct 7 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Angie Kiska, senior director for public and media relations for the Cleveland Clinic, told Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com during an interview before Tuesday's debate in Cleveland that the coronavirus pandemic has, no doubt, affected the way presidential debates are handled.

"Cleveland Clinic is the health advisor to the Commission on Presidential debates," said Kiska. "The pandemic has changed the way presidential debates are handled."

Ohio has reported 155,000 confirmed cases and some 4,817 deaths since the pandemic broke in early March, and nationally there are some 7 million cases and 208,000 deaths, the U.S. leading the world in both confirmed cases and deaths.

Worldwide there are some 34 million confirmed cases, and roughly a million deaths.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.