CLEVELAND — The Democratic vice presidential nominee's first campaign stop in Northeast Ohio has been called off due to coronavirus concerns.
The Biden for President campaign confirms U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris has canceled all scheduled travel through Sunday after two people close to her tested positive for COVID-19 late Wednesday night. The individuals were identified as Liz Allen, her communications director, and a non-staff member of the flight crew.
According to campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon, neither Harris nor presidential nominee Joe Biden has had any contact in the last three days with either of the individuals who tested positive. That means CDC guidelines technically do not recommend that she quarantine, but she has decided to suspend in-person campaigning "out of an abundance of caution."
Harris was supposed to visit Cleveland on Friday, but she will now "keep a robust and aggressive schedule of virtual campaign activities to reach voters all across the country during this time." The pandemic has severely limited candidates' ability to hold normal campaign events, and this would've been her first trip to the region with less than three weeks before Election Day.
The Biden team says both Allen and the flight crew member attended personal events in the past week, but were both tested before returning to work. They apparently were last in contact with Harris on an Oct. 8 flight, and all wore N95 masks and were not within six feet of the senator for more than 15 minutes.
Harris was also tested on Wednesday but was negative, as was her husband Doug Emhoff. His travel has also been canceled for today, but since he had no contact with either Allen or the crew member, he will be back on the campaign trail tomorrow.
"From the outset of this pandemic, the Biden-Harris campaign has taken every precaution to limit the spread of COVID-19," Dillon wrote. "Today’s exceedingly cautious steps are part of that commitment."
Contact tracing is under way for anyone else who may have been exposed to those who contracted the virus. All other staff members who were on the plane have so far tested negative as well.