Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is quarantining after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus, but he himself “has been tested and is negative,” the State Department announced Wednesday.
“Secretary Pompeo has been identified as having come into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID,” a State Department spokesperson said. “For reasons of privacy we can’t identify that individual.”
“The Secretary has been tested and is negative. In accordance with CDC guidelines, he will be in quarantine,” they said. “He is being closely monitored by the Department’s medical team.”
It is unclear when or where the top US diplomat came into contact with the individual who tested positive. CNN has reached out to the State Department for further details.
Pompeo’s Wednesday schedule listed him as having no public appointments. President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a Cabinet meeting Wednesday morning. Dozens of people in Trump’s orbit, as well as the President himself, have tested positive for coronavirus. Pompeo visited the White House on Friday.
Pompeo was slated to meet with President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to succeed him, Antony Blinken, on Thursday for the first time, CNN reported this week. He will no longer meet in person with Blinken, sources familiar with the meeting tell CNN. It is unclear if the meeting will take place virtually.
The news of Pompeo’s exposure to the disease comes as the Trump administration has hosted a slew of in-person holiday parties at both the White House and the State Department, even as the United States’ daily Covid case counts and death rates continue to climb.
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SOURCE: CNN, Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood
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