Scores of Secret Service officers assigned to protect the president and White House have been forced to isolate due to a positive COVID test or close contact with a positive coworker, according to a Nov. 13 Washington Post report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those officers \u2014 some 130 who work in the agency\u2019s central security team, three people familiar with staffing told the Post \u2014 represent a realization of the fears that increasing COVID spread among White House staff, including President Donald Trump himself, would have a negative impact on the security force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Secret Service would not confirm the exact number of COVID-positive and quarantining employees, citing privacy and operational security concerns, but a spokesperson said in a statement to Federal Times that the agency was taking \u201cevery precaution\u201d to ensure the safety of employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe health and safety of our workforce is paramount for the Secret Service and, as such, we continuously assess the requirements necessary to operate during the pandemic and ensure we remain prepared and fully staffed to carry out our critical integrated protective and investigative missions, neither of which has been degraded by the pandemic,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Secret Service maintains well-established protocols inclusive of testing, conducting contact tracing related to confirmed and suspected exposure, and immediately isolating of any employee who tests positive for COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the most recent personnel data released by the Office of Personnel Management, the Secret Service employs around 7,500 people. Given the Post\u2019s estimate of 130 impacted employees, that would account for just under 2 percent of the agency\u2019s total workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But not all Secret Service employees work in the field or directly protect important government figures, as the agency is divided into special agents, uniformed division officers, technical law enforcement personnel and administrative personnel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Secret Service officers covering the president and White House have been required to isolate after COVID-19 exposure and diagnoses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":30896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":15,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,31,15,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2853],"class_list":["post-18087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-management","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"MTASALJ7CFDVJN6HUKOFYEAOLQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/management\/2020\/11\/13\/secret-service-officers-forced-to-isolate-due-to-covid\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n