Secretary of State Antony Blinken has tested positive for COVID-19, his department’s spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday.
Blinken attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday along with several top officials, lawmakers, journalists and celebrities, though it’s not clear that is where he caught the virus. A number of journalists have tested positive for COVID since that night.
Blinken is fully vaccinated and boosted against the virus and is experiencing only mild symptoms, Price said. He tested negative on Tuesday and Wednesday morning before testing positive later Wednesday afternoon.
The secretary of state held bilateral meetings with the foreign minister of Sweden earlier Wednesday and the Armenian foreign minister on Monday. Blinken stood or sat at a distance from those leaders in public appearances after their private meetings, but they also met privately.
When asked, Price on Wednesday did not say whether the foreign minister of Sweden was considered a close contact, but he indicated that Blinken was around her for a significant portion of time.
“He had a bilateral meeting with the Swedish foreign minister, and the press aspect of that was only one element of it,” the press secretary said. “Suffice it to say that we are notifying everyone who is considered a close contact per that CDC guidance.”
Price said Blinken has not seen President Joe Biden in person for several days, and so he is not considered a close contact of the president’s.
He will work from home and isolate, and he will not make a speech he was set to deliver Thursday on the Biden administration’s China policy. That speech, which was scheduled to take place at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., will happen at a later date, Price said.
“I know he very much looks forward to returning to the office, returning to his full schedule and returning to the road just as soon as he is able to do so,” Price said in a State Department briefing.
