Kamala Harris tests positive for COVID; to quarantine at Naval Observatory residence

US Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday tested positive for COVID-19. The news was shared by her press secretary Kirsten Allen in a statement saying that Harris tested positive on both rapid and PCR tests. Allen said, "She has not been a recent contact to President Joe Biden or First Lady Jill Biden due to recent travel schedules." 

Kamala Harris tests positive for COVID

The White House has also said that Kamala Harris "has exhibited no symptoms." She will isolate herself at Naval Observatory Residence but continue to work remotely, and would only return to the White House once she tests negative for the novel virus. Her husband Doug Emhoff contracted the virus in mid-March. This comes after the 57-year-old took a week-long trip to her home state of California and returned Monday night. The last time, she was at a public event with POTUS Biden was at the White House Easter Egg Roll, which was held on April 18. 

Harris received her first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine weeks before taking office and a second jab just days after Inauguration Day in 2021. She received a booster/precaution dose in late October last year and an additional booster jab recently on April 1. 

Earlier this month, US regulators moved to approve a second COVID-19 vaccine booster for adults aged 50 years and older. The Food and Drug Administration first made the announcement authorizing an extra shot of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for emergency use in the above-mentioned age group and for certain younger people with severely weakened immune systems. 

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. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended the extra dose as an option, stopping short of urging that those eligible rush out and get it right away. 

COVID cases in US

COVID-19 cases in the US have begun to edge up with nearly all of them caused by the Omicron subvariant BA.2. According to the data from the CDC till the second week of April, BA.2 caused 86% of new Covid-19 cases nationwide. The cases have ticked up 24% from where they were two weeks ago, and the US has been averaging about 38,000 cases a day.