More than 130 Secret Service officers have been required to isolate or quarantine after either testing positive for COVID-19 or having close contact with a co-worker infected with the coronavirus, The Washington Post reports.
These Secret Service officers help protect President Trump and the White House, and the COVID-19 spread that is "believed to be partly linked to a series of campaign rallies" held by Trump in the weeks leading up to the presidential election has "sidelined roughly 10 percent of the agency's core security team," the report says.
The Post's reporting did not make clear how many of the 130 officers tested positive for COVID-19 and how many of them are isolating due to close contact with someone who contracted the coronavirus.
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The Secret Service is also "examining whether some portion of the current infections are not travel-related" but "instead trace back to" the White House, the Post says. In recent days, numerous White House officials, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Post notes that this many Secret Service officers needing to isolate or quarantine will "force many officers to forgo days off and work longer hours to compensate for absent co-workers," and a former Secret Service supervisor told the Post, "Being down more than 100 officers is very problematic. That does not bode well for White House security." Read more at The Washington Post.
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