White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has tested positive for COVID-19. The announcement comes as her boss, President Joe Biden departed the U.S. to Europe on a foreign relations tour. Psaki said she decided to skip Biden’s European trip after members of her family contracted the disease.
Psaki, the main spokesperson for the White House, is the most high-profile person in the Biden administration known to have contracted COVID-19 since he took office in January, Reuters reported today. The White House has declined to disclose the number of breakthrough COVID-19 infections that have occurred among staff, Reuters said.
“On Wednesday, in coordination with senior leadership at the White House, and the medical team, I made the decision not to travel on the foreign trip with the President due to a family emergency, which was members of my household testing positive for COVID-19,” Psaki said in a statement Sunday night.
“Since then, I have quarantined and tested negative (via PCR) for COVID on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” she added. “However today [Sunday], I tested positive for COVID.”
Psaki said she has not had close contact with the President or senior White House officials since Wednesday, and tested negative for four days after that last contact.
“I am disclosing today’s positive test out of an abundance of transparency,” Psaki continued. “I last saw the President on Tuesday, when we sat outside more than six feet apart, and wore masks.”
Psaki said she credits the vaccine for only experiencing mild symptoms as she battles the virus, which is suspected by many to have originated in 2019 in China.
Press Secretary Psaki said her mild symptoms have allowed her to continue to work remotely and she will be back on the job ten days following her first negative PCR test in the near future, hopefully.