President Joe Biden spent an hour with Nancy Pelosi in the two days before she tested positive for COVID-19, including an embrace and a kiss on the cheek — yet the White House insisted Thursday he doesn’t qualify as a “close contact” of the House speaker.
Biden, who just received his second booster dose of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE vaccine last week, tested negative for the virus Wednesday evening. Because he wasn’t deemed to have spent enough time around Pelosi, he won’t follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that close contacts wear a mask for 10 days, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.
Pelosi, 82, tested positive Thursday after testing negative earlier this week, spokesman Drew Hammill said in a tweet. She is fully vaccinated and boosted and will isolate consistent with CDC guidance, he said.
