WASHINGTON – Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, the latest White House official to test positive for the virus.
Harris is not exhibiting symptoms and has not been a close contact to President Joe Biden or first lady Jill Biden, said Kirsten Allen, press secretary to the vice president, in a statement.
“She has exhibited no symptoms, will isolate and continue to work from the vice president’s residence,” Allen said in the statement. “She will follow CDC guidelines and the advice of her physicians.”
Allen added that Harris will return to the White House when she tests negative. Harris is fully vaccinated and doubly boosted.
Harris, 57, late last week traveled to California and remained there over the weekend.
On Thursday, Harris spoke about maternal health at William J. Rutter Center at the University of California, San Francisco Mission Bay. She then traveled to Los Angeles on Thursday evening. She remained in Los Angeles through the weekend, where she had no public events. The vice president returned to Washington on Monday.
Harris’ last public event with Biden was on April 18 at the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn.
She was scheduled to be at the White House Tuesday, where she was going to join Biden for the president’s daily brief at 10:15 a.m., according to the president’s schedule.
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Harris tested positive the same day asother lawmakers, including Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
The vice president’s result comes several weeks after COVID-19 spread among top officials in Washington, following the Gridiron Dinner, an annual event attended by hundreds of lawmakers, media members and business leaders.
Harris was not in attendance at the April 2 event. But Jamal Simmons, Harris’ communications director who attended the dinner, tested positive for COVID-19 several days after the event, Allen said. He was in close contact with the vice president as defined by CDC guidance at the time, she said.
Other officials and lawmakers who tested positive for COVID-19 following the Gridiron Dinner include Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Harris is the latest White House official to contract COVID-19.
Last month, her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff tested positive for the virus. White House press secretary Jen Psaki and White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre both tested positive with COVID-19 last month.
Contributing: Chelsey Cox
Reach Rebecca Morin at Twitter @RebeccaMorin_
