EyeQ Tech review EyeQ Tech EyeQ Tech tuyển dụng review công ty eyeq tech eyeq tech giờ ra sao EyeQ Tech review EyeQ Tech EyeQ Tech tuyển dụng crab meat crab meat crab meat importing crabs live crabs export mud crabs vietnamese crab exporter vietnamese crabs vietnamese seafood vietnamese seafood export vietnams crab vietnams crab vietnams export vietnams export
Politics

WH press secretary Jen Psaki contracts COVID ahead of Biden trip to Europe

By
Steven Nelson
Published March 22, 2022
Updated March 22, 2022, 3:52 p.m. ET

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that she had tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss President Biden’s trip to Belgium and Poland to rally US allies against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Psaki disclosed her infection, stoking new health fears for the 79-year-old president, as a room of 49 seated and largely unmasked journalists waited for her to begin the daily White House press briefing.

“Today, in preparation for travel to Europe, I took a PCR test this morning. That test came back positive, which means I will be adhering to CDC guidance and no longer be traveling on the president’s trip to Europe,” Psaki said in an emailed statement.

Psaki said that she met with Biden, whose advanced age puts him at higher risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19, twice on Monday but wasn’t close to him for a significant amount of time.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
Psaki said she plans to work from home and isolate for five days pending a future negative test. REUTERS/Leah Millis

“I had two socially distanced meetings with the president yesterday, and the president is not considered a close contact as defined by CDC guidance,” she said. “I am sharing the news of my positive test today out of an abundance of transparency.”

Psaki added: “The president tested negative today via PCR test. Thanks to the vaccine, I have only experienced mild symptoms. In alignment with White House COVID-19 protocols, I will work from home and plan to return to work in person at the conclusion of a five-day isolation period and a negative test.”

The daily White House press briefing proceeded without Psaki. One of her deputies, Chris Meagher, delivered opening remarks before national security adviser Jake Sullivan took reporter questions.

“A complete professional and great colleague. Thanks to @chrismeagher46 for jumping in today with hardly any notice. (Also sorry the podium is so low),” Psaki tweeted.

COVID-19 cases are down dramatically in most parts of the country after hitting all-time highs in January due to the more contagious but less lethal Omicron variant. But a new variant called BA.2 is spurring fears about a possible new wave.

The press secretary’s illness again brings the dreaded bug, which has killed nearly one million Americans over two years, close to Biden.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, 57, tested positive for COVID-19 last Tuesday after his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, spent the day with Biden.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
Psaki said President Biden is not considered a close contact. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Former President Barack Obama, 60, said March 13 that he tested positive. And seven House Democrats who attended a Philadelphia conference where Biden spoke on March 11 also tested positive — including Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).

Psaki is fully vaccinated but previously tested positive for the coronavirus in late October. Before testing positive in that instance, members of her family caught the virus, forcing Psaki to skip Biden’s second and most recent trip abroad, which featured stops in Italy, the Vatican and the UK.