More than 800 Secret Service staffers were infected with Covid
More than 11 per cent of operatives reportedly caught virus in the span of just over a year
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More than 800 US Secret Service employees tested positive for coronavirus in the year after March 2020, according to documents obtained by a government watchdog group.
The Secret Service records obtained by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) show that 881 on the agency’s payroll tested positive for Covid-19 between 1 March, 2020, and 9 March, 2021.
According to the Associated Press, the findings mean that more than 11 per cent of Secret Service workers were infected with the virus at some point within that year.
Secret Service spokesperson Justine Whelan told the outlet that the agency had been proactive with testing its employees, with more than 25,000 tests administered.
“The Secret Service’s essential law enforcement mission required agency employees to remain in continuous contact with the public during the pandemic,” Ms Whelan said. “Now and throughout the pandemic, the Secret Service was fully prepared and staffed to successfully meet these challenges.”
The records, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, did not reveal the names or assignments of those who contracted Covid-19.
However, they did reveal that more than half of those who tested positive, or 477, had worked in the special agent division — the unit tasked with protecting the president and vice president.
CREW asserted that the Trump administration had taken certain actions “throughout the pandemic” that risked exposing Secret Service employees to coronavirus.
However, with details on which Secret Service agents contracted the virus withheld, a direct link cannot be made.
Former President Donald Trump had held multiple large rallies and events during the pandemic, including the Rose Garden announcement of Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, which many branded a Covid “super-spreader” event.
The president also took a drive in his presidential vehicle, with Secret Service personnel driving and protecting him after he contracted Covid-19.
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