House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tests positive for the coronavirus

WASHINGTON —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tested positive for the coronavirus Thursday, the latest in a string of high-ranking officials in Washington to receive the diagnosis this week.

Pelosi (D-San Francisco) is asymptomatic, according to her spokesman, Drew Hammill.

The diagnosis came Thursday morning, one day after Pelosi appeared at the White House with President Biden as he signed a postal reform bill. She huddled with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and nearly a dozen other lawmakers behind Biden as he signed the bill. None of them were masked at the time.

“The speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided,” Hammill said. “The speaker will quarantine consistent with CDC guidance, and encourages everyone to get vaccinated, boosted and test regularly.”

The White House press office said Biden is not considered a close contact of Pelosi as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calling their interactions over the last two days “brief.”

Biden tested negative Wednesday night “as a part of his regular testing cadence,” and will continue to be tested regularly.

Pelosi, who is second in the presidential line of succession, is the most senior official in the line to announce a positive test this year.

On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris’ communications director tested positive, the second close contact of the vice president to become infected in less than a month. Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, tested positive in March.

Earlier this week, Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland and Gina Raimondo, the secretary of Commerce, announced positive test results. Reps. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), Scott Peters (D-San Diego), Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) did also. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced a positive test Thursday, shortly after voting to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

Many of the diagnoses came after the officials’ attendance at Saturday night’s Gridiron dinner, a traditional white-tie gathering of reporters and politicians.