130 Secret Service officers in quarantine

WASHINGTON • More than 130 Secret Service officers who help protect the White House and the president when he travels have recently been ordered to isolate or quarantine because they tested positive for the coronavirus or had close contact with infected co-workers, according to three people familiar with agency staffing.

The spread of the coronavirus — which has sidelined roughly 10 per cent of the agency’s core security team — is believed to be partly linked to a series of campaign rallies that President Donald Trump held in the weeks before the Nov. 3 election, according to the people, who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The virus is having a dramatic impact on the Secret Service’s presidential security unit just when growing numbers of prominent Trump campaign allies and White House officials have fallen ill in the wake of campaign events, where many attendees did not wear masks.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said the administration takes “every case seriously.” He referred questions about the Secret Service outbreak to agency officials but they declined to comment.

Trump’s schedule required five stops on each of the last two campaign days, with five separate groups of Secret Service officers — each numbering 20 to several dozen — travelling in order to screen spectators and secure the perimeter around the president’s events. President-elect Joe Biden made two campaign stops that also required Secret Service protection, but in smaller numbers.

The agency is also examining whether some of the current infections instead trace back to the White House.

White House staff largely eschew wearing masks, and some Secret Service officers have been seen without them.

The Secret Service employs roughly 1,300 officers to guard the White House and the vice-president’s residence. They are also the security for presidential trips out of town and official events.

The number of officers who have been pulled off duty stresses an already overworked team and will force many to forgo days off and work longer hours to compensate for those absent. A 2015 blue-ribbon panel identified overworked Secret Service officers as one key factor that contributed to White House security breaches.

Many fell ill or had to quarantine after the president’s indoor stadium rally in Tulsa.