US VP won’t revise campaigning schedule after his chief of staff Marc Short falls ill, spokesperson says; reports say 2 other officials also infected
US Vice President Mike Pence will continue with his aggressive campaign schedule after his chief of staff, Marc Short, tested positive for the coronavirus Saturday, a spokesperson said.
Pence spokesman Devin O’Malley said Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, both tested negative for the virus on Saturday and remain in good health.
Short is Pence’s closest aide and the vice president is considered a “close contact” under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. O’Malley said that “in consultation with the White House Medical Unit, the Vice President will maintain his schedule in accordance with the CDC guidelines for essential personnel.”
Those guidelines mandate that essential workers exposed to someone with the coronavirus closely monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 and wear a mask whenever around other people.
After a day of campaigning Saturday, Pence was seen wearing a mask as he returned to Washington aboard Air Force Two once the news of Short’s diagnosis was made public.
US media reports said another Pence aide, Marty Obst, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.
The New York Times said a third Pence aide, who was not named, has been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
This was not immediately confirmed by Pence’s spokesperson.
More than two dozen people linked to the White House, including campaign aides, have contracted COVID-19 since a September gathering in which US President Donald Trump announced his pick for the US Supreme Court.
Trump, who also contracted the virus, has since recovered.
Ahead of the November 3 election, Trump at his rallies has repeatedly criticized the news media for focusing on the virus, which has killed about 224,000 people in the United States and more than 1 million across the globe.
“It’s always cases, cases, cases. They don’t talk about deaths,” Trump recently complained to a crowd of several thousand at an outdoor rally in Circleville Ohio, where few wore masks even as they stood and sat shoulder to shoulder. “They’re trying to scare everybody,” he said.
COVID-19 cases are spiking again in the United States, days before the presidential election pitting Trump against Joe Biden, with a record of more than 89,000 infections reported on Saturday.
As reported by The Times of Israel