(ABC NEWS) — The Biden campaign has announced that someone who flew with former Vice President Joe Biden to Ohio on Monday and Florida on Tuesday has tested positive for COVID-19. The positive result was discovered through contact tracing that the campaign undertook following the positive diagnosis of Sen. Kamala Harris’ communications director and a non-staff flight crew member.
"Around noon on Thursday, October 15th, we learned - as part of our contact tracing of the crew member on Senator Harris’ plane that tested positive for COVID last night - that an administrative member of the Aviation company that charters Vice President Biden’s aircraft tested positive for COVID-19," Campaign Manager Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in a statement.
However, the campaign says that Biden and the member who tested positive did not have any passing or close contact during the flight and he is not required to isolate.
“Vice President Biden was not in close contact, as defined by the CDC, with this individual at any time. In fact, the Vice President did not even have passing contact: this individual was over 50 feet from VP Biden at all times, entered and exited the aircraft from a rear entrance, and both the individual and the Vice President wore masks for the entire flight. Given these facts, we have been advised by the Vice President’s doctor and the campaign’s medical advisors that there is no need for the Vice President to quarantine,” she wrote adding that "no additional precautions are indicated for the Vice President."
The Biden campaign announced earlier Thursday that he had tested negative for COVID-19, the eighth time the campaign has released negative test results for the former vice president.
Harris and her husband also tested negative for coronavirus on Thursday, according to an aide, but she will not return to in-person campaigning until Monday after her communications director tested positive Wednesday night.
The campaign's statement said the crew member who tested positive previously tested negative three times since Oct. 4, most recently on Oct.11.
"The person was contacted as part of our contact tracing on Thursday morning, reported symptoms, sought a test for COVID-19, and was positive. A second test confirmed the positive result around noon today," according to the statement.
