Harris tests negative after 'close contact' with staffer who contracted Covid
Vice President Kamala Harris has tested negative for the coronavirus after she was a "close contact" with a staffer who later tested positive for Covid, her office said Wednesday night.
The announcement comes two days after the White House said President Joe Biden had been a close contact with another staffer who later tested positive for the virus. The president has tested negative.
Harris's office said the exposure involved a staff member who worked with the vice president throughout the day on Tuesday and then tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. The staffer, who'd tested negative on Tuesday and Monday, "is fully vaccinated and boosted and did not experience symptoms," Harris spokesperson Symone Sanders said.
She added that Harris is tested regularly, and had a negative antigen test Wednesday morning. After being notified about the close contact, she had a PCR test and tested negative.
"She will be tested again on Friday then again on Monday per CDC guidance," Sanders said. "As CDC guidance does not require fully vaccinated people to quarantine after an exposure, the Vice President will continue with her daily schedule."
Sanders added that others who were in close contact with the staff members are being contacted and advised to get tested.
The highly transmissible omicron variant of Covid has caused a surge in cases in both the Washington, D.C., area and across the country. Omicron overtook delta as the dominant variant on Monday. A day later, multiple states and territories set records for seven-day averages, including New York, Maine, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.