US

Secret Service Orders Dozens Of Officers To Quarantine In Tulsa, Fears Coronavirus Spread

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The U.S. Secret Service instructed dozens of its officers and agents who worked at President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last Saturday to self-quarantine, two people familiar with the situation told The Washington Post.

“To protect the privacy of our employees’ health information and for operational security, the Secret Service is not releasing how many of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19, nor how many of its employees were, or currently are, quarantined,”  Secret Service spokeswoman Catherine Milhoan told The Post.

Milhoan added that officers quarantining wouldn’t hamper the agency’s operational abilities, The Post reported.

“The U.S. Secret Service remains prepared and staffed to fulfill all of the various duties as required,” she said.

Two Secret Service officers tested positive for coronavirus at the rally earlier this week after six campaign staffers tested positive before the rally, CNBC reported Monday.

The move comes as coronavirus cases continue to increase in many states nationwide, according to NPR. California, Arizona and Texas are among states that are experiencing new coronavirus hospitalization highs, The Washington Post reported.

“In New York we went from the highest number of cases to some of the lowest rates in the country — no one else had to bend the curve as much as we did and now we have to make sure that the rate continues to drop in our entire region,” Cuomo said.

Meanwhile, Trump plans to ignore the new quarantine requirement when he travels to his club in Bedminster, New Jersey over the weekend, according to the White House.

Trump said that he ordered aides to slow down testing to keep new case statistics low at the Tulsa rally. However, members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force said Tuesday he never asked them to slow down testing, the The Daily Caller reported.