Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Biden National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Contracts COVID-19


Sun 19 Jun 2022 | 09:34 AM
Omnia Ahmed

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan tested positive for COVID-19, the National Security Council announced on Saturday.

"National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tested positive today for COVID-19," NSC Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement. "He is asymptomatic and he has not been in close contact with the President."

On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sparred with NBC reporter Peter Alexander on the timing of President Joe Biden's last coronavirus test.

"It’s a regular cadence. That’s what we do. We will share, per CDC, when he was a close contact, and he has not been a close contact. If he was a close contact, we will let you know," Jean-Pierre said when asked about Biden's recent testing schedule.

When she was asked further about an exact date as per usual, the spokeswoman declined to answer, instead repeating that Biden gets tested weekly.

"So as soon as you go back there and find out the date, you’ll share it with us?" Alexander asked, to which she replied: "I’m not saying that."

A number of White House officials tested positive for COVID-19, including U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who contracted the virus last April.

Furthermore, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, tested positive for coronavirus last March.

Last September, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price tested positive for COVID-19. “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, who is vaccinated, said on Twitter.