Vice President Kamala Harris has tested negative for the coronavirus after she was in "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 in close contact with another staffer who later tested positive. Biden tested negative for Covid on Wednesday, the White House said in an email to reporters.
Harris' office said the exposure involved a staff member who worked with her throughout the day Tuesday and then tested positive Wednesday. The staffer, who had 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 that she had a negative antigen test Wednesday morning. After she was 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.
Biden was also tested Sunday as part of regular protocol and was given a more sensitive test Monday after learning he came in contact with a White House aide last week who later tested positive for the virus. Those tests also came back negative, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
The highly transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus has caused a surge in cases in the Washington, D.C., area and across the country. The omicron variant overtook the delta variant as the dominant strain Monday. Multiple states and territories set records for seven-day averages Tuesday, including New York, Maine, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.
