Washington: Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris is canceling her travel until Monday after her communications director and a member of her flight crew tested positive for Covid-19, the Biden campaign said Thursday.
The campaign said Harris was not in “close contact” with communications director Liz Allen or the crew member in the days before they tested positive, but her travel would be paused “out of an abundance of caution.” Neither infected person was in contact with presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Harris had been scheduled to visit North Carolina on Thursday and to travel daily until Election Day on Nov. 3. The case is the first confirmed coronavirus illness in the Biden campaign and comes after President Donald Trump and dozens of White House staff contracted the virus last month.
The campaign said the two people traveled with Harris on Oct. 8 then took time off for personal events. They were tested upon returning to the trail and were found to be positive. Harris has taken two tests since that time and both were negative, including on Wednesday. Everyone else who was traveling that day has also had repeated negative tests.
Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, will also cancel the travel he had planned for Thursday. All of his Covid tests have been negative as well and he will return to in-person campaigning on Friday.
The campaign has begun the contact tracing process to notify everyone who came into contact with the people during the time they may have been infected.
The Biden campaign has sought to convey a sense of responsibility and caution around virus, requiring that all staff, press and event attendees wear masks, and abiding by local rules about group gatherings.
The campaign’s disclosure in a press release and conference call with reporters the morning after the positive tests contrasted with the White House’s approach around the Covid cases there, which emerged through leaks to reporters.
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