U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has tested negative for coronavirus, his spokesman said on Friday, hours after President Donald Trump announced he contracted COVID-19 and was under quarantine.
“This morning, Vice President Pence and the Second Lady tested negative for COVID-19. Vice President Pence remains in good health and wishes the Trumps well in their recovery,” spokesman Devin O’Malley said on Twitter.
Pence would take over as acting president should Trump become incapacitated while undergoing medical treatment. That has happened three times in U.S. history.
Then-President George W. Bush temporarily transferred power to Vice President Dick Cheney twice, for a few hours each in 2002 and 2007, while undergoing colonoscopies. Vice President George H.W. Bush was acting president for nearly eight hours in 1985 while President Ronald Reagan had a pre-cancerous lesion removed.
The White House said Trump is “not incapacitated” and is working in isolation after his bombshell announcement that he had caught the virus threw the administration and November presidential election into uncertainty. Several media outlets reported that he is experiencing mild symptoms.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi is next in line of succession after Pence. She said on Friday that she had been tested for COVID-19 and should know her results soon.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Andy Sullivan and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
