WASHINGTON _ Senior White House officials are debating whether to implement a mandatory mask policy for officials working in the West Wing after two close aides to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for the coronavirus.
The two aides _ Trump's valet and Pence's spokeswoman, Katie Miller _ both were "in the West Wing quite a bit," and have forced senior staff members reluctant to wear masks in the workplace to reconsider, one senior administration official told McClatchy.
"People who are closer to the president obviously need to be more closely observed," the official said.
Another senior administration official said that a mandatory mask policy had not been implemented yet, either in the West Wing or in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street from the White House, where the vice president's offices are located.
But "everything is under consideration," the official said.
White House officials, including Trump and Pence, have been reluctant to wear masks throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, concerned with the message it projects to the country in a time of crisis. The vice president and 10 members of his staff are given rapid coronavirus tests daily, and the president is also tested regularly.
For the first time since the outbreak began, all journalists who attended a press briefing in the White House press room on Friday wore masks. The new press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, and her staff did not.
Currently, other officials who work in the tight quarters "get tested every two weeks, and our temperature is taken every day before we get on campus," the second official said.
Pence was preparing to travel on Air Force Two to Iowa when his team learned of Miller's positive test result. She had received a negative test result just the day before.
Miller has led the communications response for the White House coronavirus task force. She is married to Stephen Miller, one of the president's closest aides and the main force behind his immigration policies.
After her positive test result, White House physicians identified six officials boarding Air Force Two through contact tracing, and pulled them from the vice president's trip. All six tested negative, the White House said.
"She's a wonderful young woman, Katie. She tested very good for a long period of time and then all of a sudden today she tested positive. She hasn't come into contact with me. She spent some time with the vice president," Trump told reporters Friday. "She tested positive out of the blue."
One of the presidential valets, a member of the military, tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
"We've taken every single precaution to protect the president," McEnany said in the Friday briefing. "The same guidelines that our experts have put in place: We clean the facility, we social distance, we keep people6 feet away from one another.
"I can assure the American people that their commander-in-chief is protected," she added.
