Home Affairs Department David Bernhardt tested positive for COVID-19 after days of meeting with political officials, a department spokesperson confirmed The Washington Post Wednesday.
Domestic spokesman Nicholas Goodwin told the Post in an email that Bernhardt, 51, received the diagnosis ahead of a scheduled cabinet meeting with President Trump
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“He is currently asymptomatic and will continue to work in quarantine for the American people,” Goodwin added.
The spokesperson also said the secretary “follows all CDC guidelines and consults with medical professionals as necessary,” and that “Home Office will continue to follow all CDC guidelines (ie, identifying close contacts, cleaning work areas, etc.) with regard to the secretary. positive test result. “
The Post reported that Bernhardt has spent the past two days meeting with a number of Trump officials and also revealed a portrait for the former secretary Ryan Zinke
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Two individuals who spoke with the Post on condition of anonymity to openly discuss internal discussions said Home Office officials had been informed that a holiday party scheduled for Thursday has been canceled due to Bernhardt’s diagnosis.
According to the Post, Bernhardt is at least the third top Secretary of the Interior to test positive for COVID-19 since November, after Daniel Jorjani after serving as an election observer in Pennsylvania and Aurelia Skipwith, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Bernhardt’s positive test arrives the same day at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has canceled his holiday party after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
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The party’s guest list included 180 foreign ambassadors, heads of missions and their husbands, the Post reported.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had confirmed this Pompeo was quarantined after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. He had tested negative but was “closely monitored by the department’s medical team,” the spokesman said.