Coronavirus White House: Second Pence Staffer Tests Positive Just Day After Confirmed Presidential Valet Illness

Update: 4:40 p.m. EDT

Katie Miller, Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary, tested positive Friday for coronavirus, the second member of his staff to do so.

"She's a wonderful young woman, Katie, she tested very good for a long period of time and then all of a sudden today she tested positive," Trump told a meeting with Republican members of Congress at the White House.

Trump said he had not come into contact with Miller, but she was in contact with Pence and members of the media.

Miller is married to White House adviser Stephen Miller.

Original story

A second staffer in Vice President Mike Pence’s office has tested positive for the coronavirus, the White House confirmed Friday. The news comes just one day after word President Trump’s valet had tested positive.

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters the staffer in Pence’s office had tested positive. She said precautions are being taken to protect workers to keep the White House safe.

“We have put in place the guidelines that our experts have put forward to keep this building safe,” McEnany told the daily press briefing.

There was no immediate word on the individual's duties or level of contact with the vice president. The first infection in his office was reported March 20.

The White House has regularly been testing anyone who comes into contact with the president and vice president.

Pence headed for Des Moines, Iowa, Friday to meet with religious leaders to discuss reopening houses of worship. He also was to meet with agriculture and food supply leaders.

The vice president’s flight was delayed about an hour. No official reason was given but several staffers who had been in contact with the positive individual deplaned.

Trump said Thursday he and Pence would be tested daily after a member of the military serving as the president’s valet had tested positive for the virus, which has killed more than 76,000 Americans.

Trump and Pence have largely ignored health officials’ recommendations that Americans wear masks to help prevent spread of the virus. Moments after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the recommendation, Trump said he was not inclined to comply.

“I don’t think that I’m going to be doing it,” Trump said at an April 3 briefing. During his trip to a Honeywell mask-making site in Arizona this week, he was maskless.

At an event Friday marking the end of World War II in Europe, he also was maskless. Nor was anyone around him wearing a mask Thursday when he signed a proclamation for National Nurses Day.

After news of the valet’s illness broke Thursday, Trump said: “I’ve had very little personal contact with this gentleman. I know who he is, good person, but I’ve had very little contact.”

Pence, during a visit last month to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota also was maskless despite a mandatory mask rule at the hospital. He later admitted he should have covered up, and during a subsequent trip to Indiana, he did wear a mask.