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US vice President Harris tests positive for COVID-19, Biden not a ‘close contact’
The Asharq Al-Awsat reported, the White House announced that vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday (Apr 26). This confirms the persistence of the highly contagious virus even as the US eases restrictions in a bid to return to pre-pandemic normalcy.
Harris press secretary Kirsten Allen said neither President Joe Biden nor first lady Jill Biden was considered a "close contact" of Harris in recent days. Harris had been scheduled to attend Biden’s Tuesday morning Presidential Daily Brief but was not present, the White House said. Because of their travel schedules, the last time Harris saw Biden was Monday, April 18.
According to the report, the vice president returned on Monday (Apr 25) from a weeklong trip to the West Coast.
The White House said that Harris tested positive on both rapid and PCR tests but "has exhibited no symptoms." She will isolate at her residence but continue to work remotely, and will return to the White House only when she tests negative for the virus.
Harris, 57, received her first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine weeks before taking office and a second dose just days after Inauguration Day in 2021. She received a booster shot in late October and an additional booster on April 1. Fully vaccinated and boosted people have a high degree of protection against serious illness and death from COVID-19, particularly from the most common and highly transmissible omicron variant.
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Harris’ diagnosis comes a month after her husband, Doug Emhoff, recovered from the virus, as a wave of cases of the highly transmissible omicron subvariant has spread through Washington’s political class, infecting Cabinet members, White House staffers and lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Allen said Harris would follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines "and the advice of her physicians." It was not immediately clear whether she is being prescribed any antiviral treatments.
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The White House has put in place strict COVID-19 protocols around the president, vice president and their spouses, including daily testing for those expected to be in close contact with them. The White House has said that Biden is tested regularly on the advice of his physician.
After more than two years and nearly a million deaths in the US, the virus is still killing more than 300 people a day in the US, according to the CDC. The unvaccinated are at a far greater risk, more than three times as likely to test positive and 20 times as likely to die from the virus than those who have received at least a primary dose of the vaccines, according to the public health agency.
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Harris' diagnosis comes as the Biden administration is taking steps to expand availability of the life-saving COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid, reassuring doctors that there is ample supply for people at high risk of severe illness or death from the virus.
Paxlovid, when administered within five days of symptoms appearing, has been proven to bring about a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.
Source: aawsat
