Stephen Miller, senior advisor to US President Donald Trump, has tested positive for Covid-19, said officials at the White House.
A senior administration official said Miller had previously tested negative as White House officials have tried to contain an outbreak on the complex that has infected Trump, the first lady and more than a dozen other aides and associates, reports AP.
In a statement, Miller said, "Over the last 5 days, I have been working remotely and self-isolating, testing negative every day through yesterday. Today, I tested positive for Covid-19 and am in quarantine.”
Miller is an architect of the president’s “America First” foreign policy and restrictive immigration measures.
His wife, Katie Miller, who serves as communications director to Vice President Mike Pence, previously had the virus and tested negative after the last time she saw him. Katie Miller had been in Salt Lake City with Pence, where he is preparing to debate Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, but she left as soon as she found out about her husband’s diagnosis.
Top US General Mark Milley and other military leaders are also quarantining after Coast Guard official Admiral Charles Ray tested positive, reports the BBC.
Other officials are self-isolating "out of an abundance of caution".
Adm Ray, vice commandant of the US Coast Guard, is said to be experiencing mild symptoms.
US President Donald Trump and other White House officials have tested positive for coronavirus in recent days.
Cases rising at White House
Meanwhile, since President Trump tested positive last week, a number of senior Republicans and others close to him have been confirmed as having the virus.
This includes First Lady Melania Trump, aide Hope Hicks, and a number of Republican senators.
Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has tested positive, announcing her diagnosis on Monday, and three more members of staff of the press office - Chad Gilmartin, Karoline Leavitt and Jalen Drummond - tested positive on Tuesday.
Ms McEnany was seen speaking to journalists without wearing a mask on Sunday but said no members of the press had been listed as close contacts by the White House medical unit.
Besides, President Donald Trump says he has instructed aides to stop negotiating on a coronavirus aid plan until after the election, roiling stock markets hoping for an economic boost for hard-hit industries such as the airlines.
Trump, who has the coronavirus himself, tweeted Tuesday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was not negotiating in good faith. He says, “I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business.”
Trump’s tweet comes the same day that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that a tentative recovery from the pandemic recession could falter unless the federal government supplies additional economic support.
The Democratic-led House passed a $2.2 trillion relief bill last week. The White House said at the time that it had raised the price tag on its own proposal to $1.6 trillion. But bridging that difference has proved difficult.
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