Kamala Harris cancels travel after top aide tests positive for Covid-19

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has canceled travel through Sunday after two people involved in the campaign tested positive for Covid-19, Joe Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, said in a statement Thursday.

Dillon said the campaign learned of the positive tests, of a nonstaff flight crew member and Harris' communications director Liz Allen, late Wednesday. Dillon said Harris was not in close contact with those two, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, within two days ahead of their positive tests.

Therefore, Dillion said, there is no requirement for Harris to quarantine.

"Regardless, out of an abundance of caution and in line with our campaign’s commitment to the highest levels of precaution, we are canceling Senator Harris’s travel through Sunday, October 18th, but she will keep a robust and aggressive schedule of virtual campaign activities to reach voters all across the country during this time," Dillon said. "She will return to in-person campaigning on Monday, October 19th."

The campaign put out statements later saying Biden, Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff had all tested negative for the virus on Thursday.

Neither infected person has had contact with Biden, Harris or other staffers "since testing positive or in the 48 hours prior to their positive test results," Dillon said.

"After being with Senator Harris, both individuals attended personal, non-campaign events in the past week," she said. "Under our campaign’s strict health protocols, both individuals had to be tested before returning to their work with the campaign from these personal events."

Speaking at a rally in North Carolina on Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump addressed the diagnoses of the two individuals.

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“We extend our best wishes, which is more than they did for me,” Trump said, though Biden and Harris did offer well-wishes when the president was first stricken with the coronavirus. “Let’s see what happens. It’s a tricky thing.”

Both infected people were aboard a flight with Harris last week, though Dillon said Harris was not within 6 feet with either individual for more than 15 minutes. Both Allen and the crew member tested negative before and after that flight, Dillon said.

The CDC recommends quarantining for 14 days after coming in close contact with infected people, which it defines as being within 6 feet of someone who has Covid-19 for 15 minutes or more.

Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, is having his travel for Thursday canceled, as well. Dillon said he will return to the trail Friday.

"From the outset of this pandemic, the Biden-Harris campaign has taken every precaution to limit the spread of COVID-19," Dillon said. "Today’s exceedingly cautious steps are part of that commitment."