“Today, Vice President Harris tested positive for Covid-19 in rapid tests and PCR. She has exhibited no symptoms, she will self-isolate and continue to work from the vice president’s residence,” Kirsten Allen, the vice president’s press secretary, said in a statement. .
Allen added: “She has not been in close contact with the President or the First Lady due to their respective recent travel schedules. She will follow CDC guidelines and the advice of her doctors. The Vice President will return to the White House when she tests negative.” “. .”
Harris had been scheduled to receive her intelligence briefing at 10:15 a.m. ET Tuesday at the White House along with President Joe Biden, according to daily guidance sent to reporters Monday night. She did not participate in any events or meetings at the White House on Tuesday, according to a White House official.
Harris arrived at the White House Tuesday morning, a White House official told CNN, and went straight to get tested. After testing positive for both PCR and rapid tests, she returned to her residence at the Naval Observatory, where she will be in isolation.
Separately, an official said Harris last saw Biden at the Easter Egg Roll on April 18. He left Washington for California that afternoon and didn’t return until Monday night.
While in California, he held events on portfolio issues last week. Harris held no public events over the weekend before returning to the nation’s capital.
An official said Harris had tested negative for her “regular” tests as of Tuesday. CNN has asked
The vice president’s positive Covid-19 test comes as the US has largely lifted most of its Covid-19 mitigation measures after ramping up the Omicron variant over the winter.
In accordance with federal public health guidelines, officials and visitors are not required to wear masks or socially distance at large White House events. Covid cases in Washington have declined since their peak in early January, when the country was facing a wave of Omicron variant cases, but have recently increased.
Although the White House has continued to hold crowded indoor events where masks are optional and officials have waived masks in public, the administration has said they are going beyond federal guidelines to screen for Covid-19 in building. There is mandatory testing for those who come in contact with Biden and social distancing during meetings, at least when possible.
The White House is not considering going back to pandemic-era restrictions, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
“We continue to implement the return to work policy and feel we have the necessary measures in place to do so,” he said.
Covid-19 has also recently been circulating among White House staff and Washington’s elite.
In late March, White House press secretary Jen Psaki canceled her plans to travel with the president to Belgium and Poland after testing positive for COVID-19 for the second time. Her replacement on the Europe trip, White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, tested positive shortly after returning from the trip. Harris’s husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, tested positive for Covid-19 in early March.
After the Gridiron Club Dinner, an annual event with members of the press and prominent Washington officials that took place in early April, dozens of attendees tested positive, including two Cabinet members and Harris’ communications director, Jamal Simmons. He was considered a close contact of the vice president. Harris was criticized in the wake of that close contact for her apparent disregard for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mask-wearing guidance for those exposed to covid-19, as she did not wear a mask. mask during the Supreme Court confirmation vote for Justice Ketanji. Jackson brown.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
Reference-www.cnn.com