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US Vice President Kamala Harris visits the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Lompoc, California on April 18, 2022 - at that time still corona negative
Photo: MIKE BLAKE / REUTERS
US Vice President Kamala Harris has been infected with the corona virus.
The deputy for US President Joe Biden had positive rapid and PCR tests on Tuesday, said her spokeswoman Kirsten Allen.
"She shows no symptoms, will isolate herself and continue to work from the Vice President's residence." The 57-year-old recently had no "close contact" with President Biden, 79, and his wife Jill, 70, Allen explained.
The reason was different trips.
"The vice president will return to the White House as soon as she tests negative."
Harris is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
At the beginning of April she received her second booster vaccination.
In the past few weeks, the number of corona infections in the USA has risen again after a sharp decline at the beginning of the year.
It also hit a number of high-ranking politicians, including Attorney General Merrick Garland and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
More than half of the people in the US have had Covid-19
According to a study, more than half of the population in the USA has now been infected with the corona virus at least once.
In the general population, the proportion is 58 percent, and in children up to the age of eleven it is even more than 75 percent, according to a study published by the US CDC.
The figures relate to the months of December to February.
Before the Omicron virus variant began to spread in the USA at the beginning of December, only a third of all Americans could be proven to have survived the corona infection.
For the younger children it was a good 44 percent.
In the study, scientists looked for special antibodies in the blood of test subjects that are only produced after an infection but not after a vaccination.
According to US officials, 66 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated, and 46 percent have also received a booster shot.
Overall, the corona situation in the USA has eased a lot recently.
After the Omicron wave, the number of new infections reported in the country with a good 330 million inhabitants in March was only around 30,000 per day.
In April, however, the number rose again somewhat and is currently around 44,000 per day.
In the USA, around 990,000 people have died as a result of a corona infection since the beginning of the pandemic in spring 2020 - by far the highest number reported worldwide.
jso/dpa/AFP/Reuters
