Someone who flew with former Vice President Joe Biden to Ohio on Monday and Florida on Tuesday has tested positive for the coronavirus, the campaign said on Thursday.
The Biden campaign said the positive result was discovered through the contact tracing the campaign undertook after Senator Kamala Harris’ communications director and a non-state flight crew member tested positive for coronavirus.
“Around noon on Thursday, October 15, we learned that – ad part of our contact tracing of the crew member on Senator Harris’ plane that tested positive for COVID last night – that an administrative member of the Aviation company that charters Vice President Biden’s aircraft tested positive for COVID-19,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in a statement.
But the campaign said Biden did not have any close contact with the member who tested positive with the person during the flight.
“Vice President Biden was not in close contact, as defined by the CDC, with this individual at any time. In fact, the Vice President did not even have passing contact: this individual was over 50 feet from VP Biden at all times, entered and exited the aircraft from a rear entrance, and both the individual and the Vice President wore masks for the entire flight. Given these facts, we have been advised by the Vice President’s doctor and the campaign’s medical advisors that there is no need for the Vice President to quarantine,” she added.
Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.
