State Department spokesman says he has tested positive for Covid-19

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

State Department spokesman Ned Price has tested positive for Covid-19 after participating in the UN General Assembly last week.

“After experiencing symptoms for the first time this morning, I tested positive for COVID-19 shortly thereafter, & will now quarantine for the next 10 days,” Price said in a tweet Monday. “I’m feeling under the weather but am grateful for the protection from severe illness offered by safe and effective vaccines.”

Price was a participant in a large number of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meetings during the diplomatic event in New York. Participants were all seen wearing masks while indoors for those meetings.

Blinken tested negative for Covid-19 as recently as Monday morning as part of his routine testing, State Department principal deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters Monday afternoon.

Porter said that no other members of the traveling party are currently exhibiting Covid-19 symptoms and will follow appropriate protocols.

She added that foreign delegations had not been alerted because Price had not been in contact with any of them since Thursday and the risk of exposure likely started Saturday.

“I just do want to underscore that spokesperson Price hasn’t been in contact with any foreign delegations since Thursday,” Porter said, “nearly one hundred hours before he actually started to experience any symptoms. In consultation with the State Department’s Medical Unit, we believe the risk of exposure would have actually started on Saturday and again he, at that time was not around the Secretary, he wasn’t around any other senior State Department officials or any foreign officials as well.”

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