A top aide to the Vice President of the United States Mike Pence has tested positive to the deadly coronavirus.
Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller tested positive on Friday, a day after President Donald Trump’s valet tested positive for coronavirus.
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Trump confirmed Miller was the staff who tested positive on Friday during an event with Republican lawmakers at the White House.
Pence was delayed for more than an hour Friday morning as six staffs who had contact with Miller were removed from his plane, according to a senior administration official.
They were asked to have themselves tested for infection and to go home, the official said. Miller was not aboard.
Trump told reporters on Friday: “She’s a wonderful young woman, Katie.”
“She tested very good for a long period of time and then all of a sudden today she tested positive.”
When asked about the possibility of an outbreak in the White House, Trump said: “All you can do is take precautions and do the best you can.”
He also said he was correct not to wear a mask while visiting the World War II memorial in Washington for VE Day, because the elderly veterans there with him were “far away”.
“Plus the wind was blowing so hard and such a direction that if the plague ever reached them, I’d be very surprised,” Trump added.