Kamala Harris has tested positive for the coronavirus.
“Today, Vice President Harris tested positive for COVID-19 on rapid and PCR tests,” Kirsten Allen, press secretary to the Harrris, said in an official statement acquired by rolling out. “She has exhibited no symptoms, will isolate and continue to work from the vice president’s residence. She has not been a close contact to the president or first lady due to their respective recent travel schedules. She will follow CDC guidelines and the advice of her physicians. The vice president will return to the White House when she tests negative.”
As the statement reads, President Joe Biden has not been in close contact with Harris recently. Biden, 79, is the oldest president to take oath in American history.
Harris, 57, is the latest in Washington, D.C., to contract the virus. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82, also tested positive for COVID-19, which means the two highest successors to the president of the United States are both infected.
Amid the rise of Ba.2, an Omicron subvariant, two other members of the White House cabinet, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, also tested positive this month, according to The New York Times. Garland and Raimondo were both at the Gridiron Club dinner, a black-tie event where journalists and politicians network with one another. While Harris wasn’t at the event, her communications director Jamal Simmons was, and he tested positive as well.
The White House said it follows enhanced restrictions than the CDC recommends with COVID protocols. Harris received her second booster shot on April 11, days after the shot was available for people over 50. The shot takes a week to boost the immune system.
