U.S. Homeland Security secretary tests positive for COVID-19
The Department of Homeland Security says Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has tested positive for the coronavirus and is isolating at home.
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas tested positive Tuesday for COVID-19 and is isolating at home, the agency said.
The secretary has been fully vaccinated and is experiencing only “mild congestion,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The agency said he will work from home under the protocols recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Department of Homeland Security said contact tracing was being done to check for possible exposure among others.
Mayorkas was with President Biden on Saturday at the annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service at the Capitol, standing on the podium between First Lady Jill Biden and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. The White House said they were not determined to have been in close contact with the Homeland Security secretary, given that the memorial service was outside.
The positive test requires him to cancel a scheduled trip this week to Colombia, where he was going to join Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken for discussions in part centered on efforts to address what officials are calling an unprecedented flow of migrants, particularly from Venezuela and Haiti, throughout the hemisphere.
The Department of Homeland Security, the third-largest Cabinet agency, oversees the nation’s primary immigration enforcement agencies, among other responsibilities.
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