Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris has suspended campaign travel until Monday after two people associated with the campaign tested positive for COVID-19, Joe Biden’s presidential campaign announced Thursday.
The campaign said Biden was not exposed to the coronavirus, although he and his running mate campaigned together on Oct. 8 in the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona.
Biden and Harris have tested negative for COVID-19 several times since then, the campaign said.
Harris’ communications director, Liz Allen, tested positive on Wednesday, as did a flight crew member who was on the campaign trip to the southwest, according to the campaign.
Campaign manager Jen O’Malley said U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines do not require Biden and Harris to quarantine, but that Harris would suspend travel for several days “out of an abundance of caution.”
Their infections are the campaign’s first coronavirus scare after months of stringent precautionary measures that have been ridiculed by political rival, President Donald Trump, even after Trump, first lady Melania Trump and others at the White House contracted COVID-19.
During the televised presidential debate last month, Trump said, “I don’t wear a mask like him. Every time you seen him, he’s wearing a mask.”
Harris will not attend campaign events in Ohio and North Carolina, the next two states she was scheduled to visit ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election.
…