Two Energy Secretary security detail members test positive for coronavirus

Two members of Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette's security detail tested positive for coronavirus, the department announced late Thursday night.

Posted 11:17 a.m. Oct 16, 2020 — Updated 11:17 a.m. Oct 16, 2020

Chandelis Duster

, CNN

CNN — Two members of Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette's security detail tested positive for coronavirus, the department announced late Thursday night.

Brouillette has tested negative for the virus and is not showing any symptoms, Energy spokesperson Shaylyn Hynes said in a statement posted on Twitter. He was scheduled to be in Johnstown and Erie, Pennsylvania, Thursday touring a plastics engineering lab and participating in a roundtable discussion with local labor and energy leaders, according to a press release on the department's website.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the Secretary and traveling staff will be returning by vehicle to Washington and following CDC guidance," Hynes said.

A host of lawmakers, governmental officials and their staff have tested positive for the virus recently. At least a dozen people, including President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, tested positive for Covid-19 after attending a Rose Garden event in September where it was announced that Judge Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the Supreme Court.

In June, two Secret Service agents tested positive for coronavirus after working Trump's indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and dozens of agents were quarantined as a precaution. The following month, eight Secret Service agents assigned to Vice President Mike Pence's detail ahead of his trip to Arizona tested positive for the virus.

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