Kamala Harris Cancels Travel After Two on Her Plane Get Covid-19

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris has canceled her travel until Monday after her communications director and a member of her flight crew tested positive for Covid-19, the Biden campaign said Thursday.

The campaign said Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, both tested negative on Thursday. But the campaign said earlier that even though the California senator was not in “close contact” with communications director Liz Allen or the crew member in the days before they tested positive, her travel would be paused “out of an abundance of caution.” Neither infected person was in contact with presidential nominee Joe Biden, whose travel schedule won’t be interrupted.

“I will be transparent with you about any test results that I do receive,” Harris wrote in a tweet Thursday. “In the meantime, remember: wear a mask, practice social distancing, and wash your hands regularly. It is possible to stop the spread.”

Harris was to visit North Carolina on Thursday and to travel daily until Election Day on Nov. 3. The cases are the first confirmed coronavirus illnesses in the Biden campaign. They come after President Donald Trump and dozens of White House staff contracted the virus last month.

“This shows how seriously we take Covid, how we have since March done everything in our power as a campaign to ensure the safety of our staff and our volunteers and voters, and we’ll continue to do so,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said on a call with reporters.

At a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, on Thursday, Trump extended his “best wishes” to Harris, before adding, inaccurately, “which is more than they did to me, but that’s ok.”

In fact, both Harris and Biden expressed their sympathies for the president and first lady, and their campaign ceased negative ads for several days.

The campaign said the two people traveled with Harris on Oct. 8 and then attended personal events. They were both tested on Wednesday in preparation for Harris’s North Carolina trip and tested positive then. Harris has now tested negative three times since traveling with them.

Harris has been in Washington this week for the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, which she attended virtually out of concern about Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who didn’t abide by coronavirus safety protocols.

Everyone else who was traveling with Harris on Oct. 8 has also had multiple negative tests in the past week, the campaign said.

Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, also canceled the travel he had planned for Thursday. All of his Covid tests have been negative as well and he will return to in-person campaigning on Friday.

The campaign has begun the contact tracing process to notify everyone who came into contact with the people during the time they may have been infected.

The Biden campaign has sought to convey a sense of responsibility and caution around the virus, requiring that all staff, press and event attendees wear masks, and abiding by local rules about group gatherings.

The campaign’s disclosure in a press release and conference call with reporters the morning after the positive tests contrasted with the White House’s approach around the Covid cases there, which emerged through leaks to reporters.

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