WASHINGTON -- Vice President Mike Pence was self-isolating Sunday after an aide tested positive for the coronavirus last week, joining three of the nation's top scientists in taking protective steps after possible exposure.
Meanwhile, two of President Donald Trump's top economic advisers projected Sunday that unemployment will climb as the virus continues its sweep across the United States, with one official predicting that the jobless rate will jump to 20% by next month.
An administration official said Pence was voluntarily keeping his distance from other people in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has repeatedly tested negative for covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, since his exposure but was following the advice of medical officials.
"Vice President Pence will continue to follow the advice of the White House Medical Unit and is not in quarantine," spokesman Devin O'Malley said. "Additionally, Vice President Pence has tested negative every single day and plans to be at the White House" today.
Pence has been at home since returning to Washington from a day trip to Iowa on Friday, and he did not appear at Trump's meeting with military leaders Saturday at the White House. Pence was informed of the aide's positive test shortly before departing for that trip.
An official initially said Pence planned to continue working from home, before Pence's office clarified that he planned to work from the White House today. It was not immediately clear how Pence's steps to self-isolate would affect his professional or public engagements.
Pence has led the White House Coronavirus Task Force for more than two months. Top officials who have gone into quarantine because of exposure to a person at the White House who tested positive for the virus are Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC; and the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Stephen Hahn.
Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for the coronavirus Friday, making her the second person who works at the White House complex known to test positive for the virus last week. A military service member who acts as a valet to the president tested positive Thursday.
After Miller was identified as having tested positive, Trump said he was "not worried" about the virus spreading in the White House. Nonetheless, officials said they were stepping up safety protocols for the complex.
Fauci, Redfield and Hahn have indicated varying plans for dealing with their exposure. None has announced testing positive for the virus and, taking into account what has been described as limited exposure to the infected person, are considered at relatively low risk for infection.
Fauci's institute said he was "taking appropriate precautions" to mitigate the risk to others while still carrying out his duties, teleworking from home but willing to go to the White House if called. Officials said both Redfield and Hahn will be self-quarantining for two weeks.
The three officials were expected to testify by videoconference before a Senate health committee Tuesday. On Sunday night, the office of the chairman of the committee, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., announced that the senator would be self-quarantining in Tennessee for two weeks after a staff member tested positive. Alexander, too, will participate in the hearing by videoconference.
ECONOMIC WARNINGS
On the economic front, warnings came from White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin days after the Labor Department reported its highest unemployment figures since the Great Depression, and as the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus neared 80,000.
At a time when governors are grappling with how and when to reopen their states, the comments underscore that the country is far from snapping back to normal and that further economic pain is probably still to come.
In an interview on CBS' Face the Nation, Hassett said the unemployment rate probably will rise to "north of 20%" in the next month, up from the 14.7% reported last week.
"To get unemployment rates like the ones that we're about to see ... you have to really go back to the Great Depression to see that," Hassett said.
He added that "nobody knows" when those who have lost their jobs will be able to go back to work, clarifying a statement he made upon the release of Friday's jobs report that "almost everybody" who has accounted for the recent rise in unemployment "said they expect to go back to work in six months."
Hassett's acknowledgment of the country's economic crisis was echoed by Mnuchin, who said on Fox News Sunday that he expects the second quarter of this year to be worse than the first.
"The reported numbers are probably going to get worse before they get better," Mnuchin said, later adding: "I think you're going to have a very, very bad second quarter."
When asked whether the country's unemployment number was "close to 25% at this point, which is Great Depression neighborhood," Mnuchin said, "We could be."
According to a report released Friday, the U.S. economy shed 20.5 million jobs in April, wiping out a decade of employment gains in a single month as businesses across the country shut down or curtailed operations in the effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The job market's historic plunge was far deeper than what the nation experienced during the 2008 financial crisis. No industry has been spared, even white-collar jobs in government and business services thought to be relatively safe.
Still, Mnuchin on Sunday expressed confidence in the fundamentals of the economy. He argued that the job market should begin to right itself by September as he echoed Trump's calls for a phased reopening of the economy.
This economic crisis "is no fault of American business, it is no fault of American workers; it is the fault of a virus," Mnuchin said.
BALANCING ACT
Trump economic advisers also emphasized the importance of states getting more businesses and offices open.
The president and the governors who will decide when to reopen their states are facing competing pressures. More economic activity and travel will probably lead to more people contracting covid-19. But tight restrictions on which businesses can operate are causing millions of people to join the ranks of the unemployed.
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Decisions about how fast to reopen come with a general election less than six months away, and Trump and other incumbents face the prospects of seeking another term in the midst of a public health and economic crisis.
"If we do this carefully, working with the governors, I don't think there's a considerable risk," Mnuchin said. "Matter of fact, I think there's a considerable risk of not reopening. You're talking about what would be permanent economic damage to the American public."
Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, said, "We've got to try to do two things at once [reopening and battling the virus], and it's, you know, no one is underestimating how difficult this is, but it's something that we have to do."
Hassett noted that some $9 trillion has been injected into the economy through actions taken by Congress, the White House and the Federal Reserve.
"I think that right now we have bought some time with all the money that we've thrown at the economy, and we've been using the time to do things like develop treatments, improve our treatments, learn more about social distancing and so on," Hassett said.
Information for this article was contributed by Kevin Freking and Zeke Miller of The Associated Press; and by Aaron Gregg, Felicia Sonmez, Lenny Bernstein, Carolyn Y. Johnson, Philip Rucker, Anne Gearan, Seung Min Kim, Siobhan O'Grady and Heather Long of The Washington Post.
A Section on 05/11/2020