Photo taken in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, Aug. 27, 2020 shows screens displaying former New York City mayor and Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani speaking during the 2020 Republican National Convention from Washington, D.C.(Photo: Xinhua)

US President Donald Trump said Sunday his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for COVID-19, the latest member of the president's inner circle to contract the disease.

The 76-year-old former New York City mayor's age puts him in a high-risk group, and the New York Times and ABC reported he was hospitalized on Sunday in Washington as the US faces a record surge in coronavirus cases.

Giuliani's diagnosis comes after he had been crisscrossing the country, leading the president's defiant - and unsuccessful - effort to undo Joe Biden's victory in the November 3 presidential election.

During his travels, Giuliani has been seen frequently without a mask: On Wednesday, he was at the Michigan state assembly in Lansing with his face uncovered for a hearing that lasted more than four hours. 

On Thursday, CNN showed footage of him in Atlanta walking maskless down a hall chatting with several other people whose faces were uncovered.

A few hours earlier, Giuliani was interviewed live on Fox News and showed no signs of the disease.

Trump's legal team said in a statement that Giuliani tested negative for coronavirus twice before his most recent trip and "did not experience any symptoms or test positive for COVID-19 until more than 48 hours after his return."

Other members of the legal team will follow their doctors' orders and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on self-isolation and testing, the statement said.

Giuliani tweeted Sunday that he was "getting great care and feeling good."

AFP