Kamala Harris Tests Positive for COVID-19; White House Claims VP Experiences No Symptoms

Vice President Kamala Harris's office confirmed Tuesday that she tested positive for COVID-19.

According to Harris's press secretary Kirsten Allen, Harris tested positive but displays no symptoms. She will work from the vice president's home and isolate herself. Harris is taking Pfizer's Paxlovid antiviral medications, which can lessen the chance of becoming very unwell, at the advice of her doctors, according to Allen.

White House: Kamala Harris Isn't a Close Contact to Biden

Because of their recent travel schedules, Harris has not been in direct communication with either President Biden or their first wife Dr. Jill Biden, according to the statement, but will return to the White House after she tests negative. She has had two booster injections after being immunized.

According to the White House, Biden and Harris spoke on the phone on Tuesday afternoon, and the president wanted to check in and make sure she has everything she needs while she quarantines at home. Her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, tested positive for COVID-19 less than a month ago, and the vice president's positive diagnosis arrives more than a month later.

Several other White House staff members, including Harris's communications director Jamal Simmons and Jill Biden's press secretary Michael LaRosa, as well as top Washington officials like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, all tested positive earlier this month.

The White House stated on Tuesday that Paxlovid would be made more widely available as part of its efforts to protect Americans against the virus and improve access to treatments. The tablets were initially in short supply after being approved by the Food and Drug Administration in December, but distribution has subsequently been increased.

The White House is also opening new 'test-to-treat' clinics, where Americans may be tested and may get free oral antiviral medicines in one visit if they are discovered to have the coronavirus, as per CBS News.

Former President Barack Obama tested positive for the virus just over a month ago while former President Donald Trump tested positive in October 2020.

Harris is one of a slew of politicians and celebrities who have been infected with coronavirus in recent months, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Illinois Representative Bobby Rush, and Lupita Nyong'o.

COVID-19 Cases in the US

Vice President Harris tweeted earlier this month that she had had her second booster injection. Pfizer and Moderna were approved by the Food and Drug Administration a month ago for a second COVID-19 booster dose for persons 50 and older. A second booster injection is available for those aged 12 and above who have severely compromised immune systems.

The positive coronavirus tests of Vice President Harris come as vaccination and mask regulations are being dropped across the country, most notably in large areas like Chicago and New York City, The Root via MSN reported.

People who have been fully vaccinated and boosted are more likely to avoid major disease and death from COVID-19, especially the most frequent and highly transmissible Omicron strain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggested the additional dose as an option but did not urge individuals who were eligible to obtain it soon.

As reported by Republic World, in the United States, COVID-19 instances have begun to rise, with the Omicron subvariant BA.2 being responsible for virtually all of them. BA.2 was responsible for 86 percent of new Covid-19 infections countrywide, according to CDC statistics through the second week of April. The number of infections has increased by 24% just two weeks ago, with the US seeing over 38,000 cases each day on average.