Joe Biden’s presidential campaign announced that he and his running mate Kamala Harris will begin regular coronavirus testing as the campaign increases in-person events heading into the election.
A Biden official said Monday that campaign staff who work in close contact with Biden and Harris will also be regularly tested. The official said that if either Biden or Harris tests positive, it will be released to the public.
Campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said that the announcement is demonstrative of the campaign’s “commitment to turn the page on Trump’s catastrophic mismanagement” of the pandemic.
“For the entirety of this outbreak, Joe Biden has lived his values, modeling and strongly encouraging responsible behavior to keep Americans safe while proposing the kind of desperately needed national strategy for defeating this pandemic that Donald Trump still has not provided,” Bates said in a statement.
“This announcement is another step demonstrating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s commitment to turn the page on Trump’s catastrophic mismanagement during the worst public health crisis in 100 years,” he added.
Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, revealed on Sunday that the Democratic nominee has not yet been tested for COVID-19 but that he has been under strict coronavirus restrictions. Despite his lack of testing, members of the press who were in Delaware to cover his speech were required to get tested.
“He has not had the virus. We have put in place really strict protocols, as I think all of your journalists who attended our convention in Delaware this week saw. We’ve put in place incredibly strict protocols to ensure that everybody involved who is around Vice President Biden, who is around Sen. Harris, is undergoing the appropriate testing,” Bedingfield said on ABC News.
President Trump is already undergoing regular COVID-19 tests, as are other members of the White House team.
In-person campaign events are likely to increase as campaigning heats up heading into the final 70 days of the presidential election.
