Rep. Cedric Richmond, who is set to join the forthcoming Biden administration as an advisor, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team announced his diagnosis on Thursday, The New York Times reported. Richmond began to experience symptoms on Wednesday and will quarantine for the next 14 days.
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“The protocols we have followed are consistent with protocols we followed during the campaign to ensure the safety of everyone involved,” Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We take all precautions possible, follow the best guidance of public health officials and remain committed to transparency and information sharing when positive tests do arise.”
The outgoing Louisiana congressman, who represented the 2nd Congressional District, was tapped by Biden to be his campaign’s co-chair. In the new year, he will join the Biden-Harris administration as director of the Office of Public Engagement with a focus on outreach to business leaders and advocacy for groups such as the NAACP.
As he had done earlier this year while Biden was still on the campaign trail, Richmond, 47, appeared alongside him this Tuesday at a Georgia rally in support of Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock. The campaign said that Biden tested negative for COVID-19 and that there was no close contact at the rally between Richmond and Biden.
“Richmond’s interactions with the president-elect happened in open air, were masked and totaled less than 15 consecutive minutes, the CDC’s timeframe for close contact. Richmond traveled to Georgia on his own and not with the president-elect,” Bedingfield said, per the Times.
At 78, Biden will be the oldest president in United States history and is included in the high-risk group of those most vulnerable to the airborne disease. As theGrio reported, Biden will take the COVID-19 vaccine publicly next week.
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“I don’t want to get ahead of the line, but I want to make sure we demonstrate to the American people that it is safe to take,” Biden told reporters Wednesday in Wilmington, Delaware.
“When I do it, I’ll do it publicly, so you can all witness my getting it done,” the President-elect said.
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