Vice President Kamala Harris leaves her plane in August 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein/AFP via Getty Images
- Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for COVID-19, her office announced Wednesday.
- Harris’ office said that Biden is not considered a close contact.
- She is currently asymptomatic.
Vice President Kamala Harris has tested positive for COVID-19, her office announced Wednesday.
Harris is fully vaccinated with two doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and received a booster shot in October 2021, making her case a so-called breakthrough infection.
According to the statement, Harris is asymptomatic. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are also not considered close contacts.
“The Vice President will return to the White House when she tests negative,” Kirsten Allen, Harris’ press secretary, said in a statement.
Harris recently returned to her home state of California for a series of events. She spoke at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Los Angeles and a speech at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Harris is now the second most powerful US official to test positive for the virus since the pandemic began, though given her age and vaccination status she is very unlikely to contract a serious case. President Donald Trump tested positive in October 2020 before vaccines were approved. His condition worsened to the point that he needed to be briefly hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Second Gentlemen Doug Emhoff tested positive for the virus in mid-March, but Harris did not catch the virus at that time and tested negative throughout.
COVID-19 cases nationwide and in the Washington, DC area have sharply fallen since the mid-January peak of the highly contagious Omicron variant. But Omicron is continuing to circulate in the country, with the Omicron BA.2 subvariant now the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States.
Former President Barack Obama, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki have also tested positive for the virus in recent weeks. Washington elites have experienced a string of recent cases, many of which were attributed to the exclusive Gridiron dinner. More than 72 people tested positive after attending the early April dinner, including three Cabinet secretaries.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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