US vice-president Kamala Harris has tested positive for Covid-19, her office announced on Tuesday.
Harris has not displayed any symptoms and will isolate and work from her vice-president’s residence in Washington DC, her office said, adding that she has also not been in close contact with Joe Biden or the first lady, Jill Biden.
“She will follow CDC guidelines and the advice of her physicians. The vice-president will return to the White House when she tests negative,” her press secretary, Kirsten Allen, said.
Harris’s case is considered a “breakthrough” infection, as she is fully vaccinated with two doses of Moderna’s vaccine and received a booster shot last October.
In recent weeks, her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, and Harris’s communications director, Jamal Simmons, as well as White House press secretary Jen Psaki and deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre have all disclosed testing positive for Covid-19.
Administration officials have said recently that Biden’s regular contact with advisers and supporters could expose him to Covid-19.
Last week, the White House held an Easter egg roll event that saw approximately 30,000 guests on the White House lawn.
Infections have risen again in some parts of the US due to the highly transmissible Omicron BA.2 variant, even as cases are falling overall, according to public health officials.
Earlier this month, House speaker Nancy Pelosi tested positive, amid a string of positive Covid-19 diagnoses on Capitol Hill after numerous government officials attended Washington’s Gridiron Club and Foundation dinner.
Pelosi did not attend the annual dinner but a handful of officials tested positive after the gala. Those included the attorney general, Merrick Garland, commerce secretary Gina Raimondo and representatives Joaquín Castro and Adam Schiff.
