On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for Covid-19, according to her office, despite the fact that she had no symptoms and had not been in close touch with the president or first lady.
Harris, 57, “will isolate and continue to work from the Vice President’s residence,” according to a statement from her press secretary, Kirsten Allen.
Harris is the highest-ranking White House official to hire Covid. Even despite coming into close contact with a number of government officials who later tested positive for the virus, President Joe Biden has remained virus-free, as per Yahoo.
“Due to their respective recent travel schedules,” Allen’s statement claimed, Harris is not considered a close contact to Biden or their first lady Jill Biden.
The vice president, who is first in line for the presidency, has been fully vaccinated against Covid and recently received her second booster dose.
According to her office, Harris tested positive for Covid on both fast and PCR tests, and she will return to the White House if she tests negative.
The vice president’s diagnosis comes amid an increase in Covid cases in the United States in recent weeks, which appears to be fueled in part by the novel omicron subvariant BA.2 in some areas.
Despite the fact that the upward trend is far below the virus’s peak spread during the winter months, some officials have decided to maintain some social distancing measures in place.
Senators Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Ron Wyden of Oregon, both Democrats, stated earlier Tuesday that they had tested positive for Covid and were experiencing moderate symptoms.
Because of the test results, it’s unclear whether Senate Democrats will have enough votes to confirm some of the nominees they planned to vote on this week.
Harris has the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, which is split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats. Since the Ulysses S. Grant administration ended in 1873, she has used such power 17 times, the most of any vice president since Schuyler Colfax of the Ulysses S. Grant administration.
According to a senior Senate Democratic aide, a vote to advance Lisa Cook’s candidacy to the Federal Reserve Board is set to fail Tuesday due to the positive Covid tests. According to the aide, the chamber would also delay its consideration of Alvaro Bedoya for a seat on the Federal Trade Commission.
After many Republicans supported her bid in a procedural vote Monday, the Senate is set to confirm Lael Brainard, Biden’s candidate for Fed vice chair, on Tuesday.
