Vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is resuming in-person campaign events on Oct. 19 by traveling to Florida during the state’s first day of in-person early voting.
The announcement comes after Harris suspended in-person events following news that several campaign staffers tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said earlier this week that the two staffers—a non-staff flight crew member, and Harris’s communications director Liz Allen—didn’t have contact with Biden, Harris, or any other staff members since testing positive or in the 48 hours prior to their positive tests.
“After being with Senator Harris, both individuals attended personal, non-campaign events in the past week. Under our campaign’s strict health protocols, both individuals had to be tested before returning to their work with the campaign from these personal events. These protocols help protect the campaign, the staff, and anyone who they may have contact with,” Dillon said in a statement at the time.
Harris tested negative for the virus on Oct. 15.
The Californian senator has been campaigning virtually since canceling in-person events.
The positive tests of the Biden campaign staffers came about two weeks after President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19. Their son, Barron Trump, also tested positive this month. They have all since recovered.
Trump told a rally in North Carolina on Oct. 15 that he extended his “best wishes” to the Biden campaign after learning about the positive tests.
Trump and Biden participated in in-person town halls on Oct. 15.
Last week, Harris appeared remotely during Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee. She quizzed Barrett about a range of topics including the Affordable Care Act and tried to bait the judge into giving her view about climate change.
At one point, Harris asked the judge whether she thinks COVID-19 is infectious and smoking causes cancer, in which Barrett said they were established facts.
Harris then asked Barrett, “Do you believe climate change is happening and it’s threatening the air we breathe and the water we drink?”
Barrett said that while the first two questions were on established facts, she said she wouldn’t respond to the third question because it was trying to elicit an opinion from her about a “very contentious matter of public debate.”
“I will not express a view on a matter of public policy, especially one that is politically controversial, because that is inconsistent with the judicial role, as I have explained,” the judge said.
“Thank you, Judge Barrett. And you’ve made your point clear that you believe it’s a debatable point,” Harris said in reply.
Harris will travel to Orlando and Jacksonville on Oct. 19.
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
