COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sen. Kamala Harris has canceled her upcoming trips to Ohio and North Carolina after two individuals in the campaign tested positive for COVID-19.
One of them is a non-staff flight crew member and the other is Liz Allen, Harris' communications director. Both tested positive Thursday night.
In a statement, Biden Campaign Manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said, "Senator Harris was not in close contact, as defined by the CDC, with either of these individuals," adding, "as such, there is no requirement for quarantine."
The campaign added that Harris has tested negative for COVID-19 as recently as Wednesday, Oct. 14.
Neither of the individuals had contact with former Vice President Joe Biden "since testing positive or in the 48 hours prior to their positive test results," according to the campaign, nor did they come in contact with Sen. Harris or any other staffers in that period.
Out of an abudance of caution, the campaign has also canceled events featuring Sen. Harris' husband Doug Emhoff. The campaign said that he has taken 3 PCR tests since Oct. 8 and all have come back negative.
Later Thursday, the Biden campaign announced that a third person tested positive for COVID-19, an administrative member of Aviation company that charters Biden's plane. This person was on Biden's trips to Ohio and Florida this week, but was more than 50 feet away from Biden at all times and always wore a mask.
This person tested negative as recently as Oct. 11, and was identified during the campaign's contact tracing process, according to O’Malley Dillon. The campaign says that Biden still does not need to quarantine as a result, citing CDC guidelines.
It’s the Biden campaign’s first major coronavirus scare, after months of careful health procedures that brought mockery from President Donald Trump, even after a White House virus outbreak that included the president and first lady Melania Trump. The Democratic campaign’s cautious reaction underscores again the differences in how the rival camps have approached the pandemic, both in terms of preferred government response and the candidates’ personal protocols.
The travel suspension interrupts the Biden campaign’s aggressive push across a wide battleground map, including North Carolina and Ohio, the next two states Harris was scheduled to visit.
The campaign sees Harris, the first Black woman on a major party presidential ticket, as a key part of their outreach in North Carolina, where increasing Black turnout is key to the Democrats’ hopes of flipping the state from President Donald Trump’s column. She had been scheduled to travel to the state Thursday for events encouraging voters to cast early ballots.
Her Friday trip to Cleveland would have been her first to Ohio as the vice presidential nominee and would have taken her into the metropolitan area with the state’s largest concentration of Black voters.
The senator’s brief hiatus from the trail comes as Trump ramps up his own travel again after he, first lady Melania Trump and several White House staffers contracted the virus.
The campaign is currently conducting contract tracing and alerting those who may have come into contact during the infection window.
The campaign told reporters Thursday morning that the two individuals tested positive after an Oct. 8 campaign trip to Arizona.
Harris and Biden spent several hours together that day through multiple campaign stops, private meetings and a joint appearance in front of reporters at an airport.
The two members of the Democratic presidential ticket were masked at all times in public, and aides said they were masked in private, as well. Biden and Harris have each had multiple negative tests since then.
Harris followed up in a statement saying that “both the crew member and the staff member were wearing N95 masks at all points they were near me, and our doctors believe that we were not exposed under CDC guidelines.”
She also pledged to be “transparent with you about any test results that I do receive. In the meantime, remember: wear a mask, practice social distancing, and wash your hands regularly. It is possible to stop the spread.”
Harris will continue virtual campaigning, including fundraisers previously scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Biden will attend an ABC News town hall airing live at 8 p.m. EDT, and he will proceed with his planned travel Friday and through the weekend.
O’Malley Dillon said all staff campaign staff members on the flight have been tested at least twice since Oct. 8. All tests have been negative, she said.
The campaign became aware of the positive tests Wednesday night, O’Malley Dillon said. Harris already this week had opted to attend virtually the Senate Judiciary Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, rather than in person after some of her GOP Senate colleagues tested positive for coronavirus or disclosed their exposure to others who had tested positive.
Biden’s campaign has taken the coronavirus seriously, enough to draw mockery from Trump and Republicans, even as the White House deals with the fallout of its virus outbreak.
The Democratic ticket’s campaign events are socially distanced and require participants to wear masks. Staff often set chairs inside white plastic circles to denote six feet of distance.
During a recent indoor speech at a North Carolina event for Harris, reporters were given and asked to wear KN95 masks.
Biden and Harris typically keep their masks on when speaking indoors. Both travel on planes with a small number of staff and Secret Service.
For Harris’ travel, a second plane carries the rest of the staff, while for Biden, a second plane carries the traveling press corps.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.