COVID in staff sidelines her Kam-paign

Kamala Harris will take a brief break from in-person campaigning, but Joe Biden will stay on the trail after three members of their staff tested positive for COVID-19, a senior aide for the Democrats said Thursday.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign manager, said in a statement that Harris’ communications director, Liz Allen, and a member of the California senator’s flight crew tested positive for the virus late Wednesday. As a result, Harris will suspend all in-person campaign events until Monday, although she did not interact with either of the infected staffers, Dillon said.

“She will keep a robust and aggressive schedule of virtual campaign activities to reach voters all across the country,” Dillon said. “This is the sort of conduct we have continuously modeled in this campaign.”

Later Thursday, Dillon issued another statement saying that a member of Biden’s flight crew had also come down with the virus.

However, Dillon said there’s no need for the former vice president to quarantine or adjust his schedule because “this individual was over 50 feet from VP Biden at all times” during a campaign trip to Ohio on Monday. Biden’s plane is also “larger than Sen. Harris’ plane,” Dillon added.

“The individual wore a mask throughout their time traveling with the vice president and his accompanying party,” Dillon said. “The vice president and his team wore N95 masks during the flights.”

Harris and Biden both tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday, the campaign said.

The campaign’s safety precautions appear aimed at contrasting Biden and Harris with President Trump, who has consistently downplayed the importance of respecting restrictions like face masks and social distancing to limit the spread of the virus that’s killed more than 217,000 Americans.

Since recovering from his own COVID-19 infection, Trump has resumed an aggressive in-person campaign schedule.