CLEVELAND, Ohio Six people who work at the Bratenahl club that hosted President Donald Trump on Thursday tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus but were not at the club to encounter the president.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Health and the Shoreby Club each confirmed the positive tests on Friday and offered assurances that the workers posed no hazard to the president.

Any food with which they might have come in contact was discarded, club General Manager Buddy Kane said in a letter to members. The club, meanwhile, was closed Friday and will be sanitized.

The employees were tested Thursday morning off-site as part of preparations for the event. All were asymptomatic, Kane said in the letter to members.

It is unclear yet, though, how many of the employees actually did contract the virus, Dr. Heidi Gullett, medical director for the county Board of Health, said during a Friday media briefing.

The employees were given a rapid positive antigen test, which yields results quickly, but also can yield false positives.

That was the case for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who was scheduled to welcome the president to Cleveland, but instead returned to his home in Cedarville after getting a positive result from that test.

DeWine later tested negative when a more sensitive test called a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR test, which detects genetic material from the new coronavirus, was administered at a Columbus hospital.

Kane, in his letter, said that those who tested positive will also be retested. Gullett, in the briefing Friday, said the six are not counted as confirmed cases at this point.

None were at the event Thursday evening when Trump spoke at the private fundraiser.

The event was Trumps first trip to Ohio since January. Entry started at $5,600 per person. A photo and entry to the reception went for $35,000 and all that plus entry to a roundtable event cost $100,000, according to the campaign posting.

Earlier in the day, at an appearance in Clyde, Ohio, the president tried to soften the blow of the coronavirus pandemic, saying it would be over sooner than people think.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a question about whether anyone attending the event might have tested positive.

Kane, in his letter, said he was meeting with the Board of Health staff for guidance, which the club would follow.

Reporter Seth A. Richardson contributed to this story.

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6 workers at Bratenahl club where Donald Trump appeared test positive for coronavirus, but didnt encounter t - cleveland.com