White House Spokesperson Tested Positive For COVID-19 And Met Joe Biden, Doctor Says Jen Psaki's Chance Of Infecting President Is Small

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. (Wikimedia Commons/The White House)

JAKARTA - Doctor says it is unlikely that White House Spokesperson Jen Psaki will infect President Joe Biden, following the announcement that she has tested positive for COVID-19.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday in a statement, saying she last met President Joe Biden on Tuesday last week.

Psaki, who has received his COVID-19 vaccination and is experiencing mild symptoms, said he and President Biden sat outside with a distance of about 1.8 meters between the two and wore masks when they met last Tuesday.

"I am revealing the positive test result today as transparency," Psaki said, citing Reuters on November 1.

President Biden, who attended a series of G20 summit meetings in Rome over the weekend, tested negative for COVID-19 on Saturday, said a person familiar with the matter.

Psaki is the most high-profile figure in President Biden's government known to be infected with COVID-19 since he assumed the post in January.

Previously, Jen Psaki decided not to join President Biden on his trips to Rome and Glasgow, for the series of G20 Summits and the COP26 Climate Change Summit, because a member of his family tested positive for the virus and decided to undergo quarantine.

Since being quarantined on Wednesday, Psaki has repeatedly tested negative for COVID-19, before testing positive on Sunday's test. However, Psaki said in a statement that he plans to return to work after ending the 10-day quarantine period, and has a negative COVID-19 rapid test result.

"On Wednesday, in coordination with senior leadership at the White House and the medical team, I made the decision not to travel overseas with the President due to a family emergency, in which my family member tested positive for COVID-19," Psaki said in a Sunday statement, as reported by CNN.

"Since then I have been quarantined and tested negative (via PCR) for COVID on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. However, today (Sunday) I tested positive for COVID," she continued.

Regarding the conditions that occurred, a number of doctors said it was unlikely that Jen Psaki would infect President Joe Biden with COVID-19.

"Based on the timeline of Ms. Psaki's tests being negative for a few days after her last meeting with President Biden (who is also outside and behind closed doors, therefore very low risk in and of herself)," Dr. Leana Wen, a CNN medical analyst and former health commissioner for the City of Baltimore, said in an email.

Separately, infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine also said he felt President Biden was well protected.

"Well, he's been vaccinated three times, so he should be fine unless he has an immune deficiency that we don't know about," Hotez told CNN in an email.

For information, earlier this year Psaki said President Biden had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with randomized testing every two weeks as surveillance, at the request of his doctor, Kevin O'Connor. President Biden received the third dose of the COVID-10 vaccine using the Pfizer vaccine last month.

Meanwhile, the White House has declined to disclose the number of breakthrough COVID-19 infections that have occurred among staff.