US Vice-President Mike Pence is self-isolating away from the White House following his press secretary's diagnosis of Covid-19 on Friday (May 8), said three people familiar with the situation.<
>The VP didn't attend a meeting on Saturday with President Donald Trump and top military officials.<
Pence tested negative for coronavirus infection on Sunday, one of the people said. He and Trump have been tested regularly.<
>He is staying at his home at the US Naval Observatory in Washington out of an abundance of caution, said the people, who asked not to be identified because his isolation hasn't been publicly announced.
Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for coronavirus on Friday. Miller is the primary spokeswoman for the White House coronavirus task force, which Pence leads and which last met on Thursday.
Pence travelled to Iowa on Friday after Miller's positive test, a trip that was delayed for more than hour so that six members of the VP's staff who'd been in contact with Miller could disembark from Air Force Two.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who visited the White House on Wednesday and spent time near Miller, is considering self-isolating, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The state's health director, Caitlin Pedati, accompanied Reynolds on the trip and is planning to self-isolate, one of the people said.
Reynolds and Pence were in each other's company for extended periods during his Iowa trip, practising social distancing. Neither official, though, wore a mask at meetings with state faith leaders and food industry executives.
Miller's diagnosis followed a positive test result earlier in the week for a member of the military who works as a valet to Trump. Miller is married to one of Trump's closest aides, Stephen Miller.
This weekend three top US health officials who are task force members announced they would take isolation measures.
The heads of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said they would self-quarantine, while Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he would practice what he called a "modified" quarantine.