Susan Rice, the White House domestic policy adviser, has become the latest member of the Biden administration to report testing positive for the coronavirus, announcing Monday on Twitter that she had received the result that morning.
“I’m feeling fine and grateful to be vaccinated and double boosted,” Rice wrote. She added that she had last seen President Joe Biden in person Wednesday while wearing a mask and that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, he was “not considered a close contact.”
People are considered close contacts when they have been less than 6 feet away from an infected person for at least 15 minutes over a 24-hour period, the CDC guidance says.
Rice is among a handful of high-ranking officials and members of the media who have tested positive for the coronavirus, renewing concern about Biden’s potential exposure.
On Wednesday, the State Department announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who attended the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner April 30, had tested positive. A spokesperson for the department said that Blinken, who had mild symptoms, had not seen Biden in several days.
George Cheeks, the president and CEO of CBS, tested positive Thursday; he had been sitting beside Biden at the dinner, the network confirmed Friday.
Many had questioned whether it was advisable to pack 2,600 people into a windowless hotel ballroom. Proof of vaccination and a same-day negative test were required and boosters were strongly encouraged, but masks were optional.
Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive in late April, but she had not seen the president for eight days before that.