Susan Rice, the White House’s domestic policy adviser, has become the latest member of the Biden administration to report testing positive for the coronavirus. announces Monday on Twitter that she got the results this morning.
“I feel fine and grateful to have been vaccinated and double-shot,” Ms Rice wrote. She added that she last saw President Biden in person on Wednesday wearing a mask and that he was “not considered close contact,” according to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A person is considered close contact when they are less than six feet from an infected person for at least 15 minutes over a 24-hour period, the CDC guideline says.
Ms. Rice is one of a handful of senior officials and members of the media who have tested positive for the coronavirus, further raising concerns about President Biden’s possible exposure.
On Wednesday, the State Department announced that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who attended the White House Correspondents Association dinner on April 30, had tested positive. A spokesman for the department said Mr Blinken, who had mild symptoms, had not seen Mr Biden for several days.
George Cheeks, the president and chief executive of CBS, tested positive on Thursday; he had sat next to President Biden at dinner, the network confirmed Friday.
Many had wondered whether it was advisable to put 2,600 people in a windowless hotel ballroom. Proof of vaccination and a negative test on the same day were required and boosters were strongly encouraged, but masks were optional.
Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive in late April but hadn’t seen the president for eight days before that.
