U.S. diplomat’s illness alarms European allies

WASHINGTON — As part of a diplomatic tour through Europe in late October, the Department of State’s director of policy planning briefed journalists in London about the Trump administration’s strategy toward China. A video of the virtual event showed him coughing at least six times during the hourlong discussion.

The senior department official, Peter Berkowitz, held faceto-face meetings the same day with British officials. He had similar meetings with French diplomats a few days later in Paris before flying back to the United States on a commercial airline — and then testing positive for the coronavirus.

Berkowitz’s trip two weeks ago to Budapest, London and Paris has angered other Department of State employees who believed it was unnecessary. It has irritated foreign officials whom he may have exposed to the virus. And it has raised questions about the limits of in-person diplomacy during a pandemic — especially as cases are again skyrocketing across the United States and Europe.

Department of State protocols generally call for diplomats who are showing symptoms of the virus — including repeated coughing — to quarantine until they can be tested. Then, if they test positive for COVID-19, they are expected to remain overseas until they test negative or, in extreme cases, can be brought back to the United States with a biomedical unit.

Berkowitz did neither, according to two Department of State officials with direct knowledge of his travels.

The Department of State would not make Berkowitz available for an interview.

Department of State officials said diplomatic travel had been more limited during the pandemic, although they could not say by how much.

“At the end of the day, diplomacy does not wait,” said Morgan Ortagus, the department’s spokeswoman.