Blinken Cuts Short Asia Trip Over Covid Case in His Entourage

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(Bloomberg) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken scrapped the rest of his tour of Southeast Asia and will return to Washington after a member of the press traveling with him tested positive for Covid-19, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

© Photographer: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP Person Traveling With Blinken Tests Covid Positive in Asia

The changes mean Blinken will skip planned visits to Thailand, where he was to meet with government leaders, and to Hawaii, where he was scheduled to meet with with US Indo-Pacific forces.

Blinken and other senior staff have tested negative for Covid, Price said, and the person who tested positive for Covid wasn’t involved with and didn’t participate in Blinken’s events Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, the U.S. embassy in Malaysia said in a statement.

“We learned this morning, through our routine PCR testing, that a member of our traveling press pool tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur,” Price said. “The individual had last tested negative in Jakarta, our previous stop.”

Price said the decision to abbreviate the trip had been made “out of an abundance of caution.”

In addition to Blinken, all other senior staff also tested negative upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur, Price said.

The person who tested positive would remain in isolation, Price said.

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