WASHINGTON — Katie Miller, the wife of presidential adviser Stephen Miller and the spokesperson for Vice President Mike Pence, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
President Trump confirmed the positive test in a meeting with Republican Congress members but added that he has not been in touch with her. However, the news has big implications: her husband, who handles speechwriting and immigration policy duties, is one of Trump’s closest advisers.
Trump and Pence are tested daily for the virus.
News of Miller’s positive test delayed Pence’s scheduled departure Friday to Des Moines, Iowa, for more than an hour, and several staffers who had been in contact with her left the plane.
Stephen Miller and Katie Waldman married in February at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, a senior adviser to David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel, officiated.
US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn is in self-quarantine for a couple of weeks after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, an FDA spokesman told Reuters late on Friday.
Hahn immediately took a diagnostic test and was tested negative himself for the novel coronavirus, FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said in an emailed statement.
Politico reported earlier that it was Katie Miller, US Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary, whom Hahn had come into contact with.
Asked by Reuters to confirm the details in the report, the statement did not name the person who was tested positive for COVID-19 with whom the commissioner had met.
"As Dr. Hahn wrote in a note to staff today, he recently came into contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19. Per CDC guidelines, he is now in self-quarantine for the next two weeks," the FDA spokesman said.
About 3.90 million cases of the coronavirus have been recorded worldwide with nearly 1.27 million coming from the United States alone, according to a Reuters tally as of late Friday. The worldwide death toll stands at about 270,000 with the United States recording over 75,000 deaths.
The virus, first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, has also driven millions into unemployment as a result of lockdown measures put in place to curb a rise in infections.