Top White House aide Stephen Miller tests positive for coronavirus

WASHINGTON: Stephen Miller, a top policy adviser to President Donald Trump, has tested positive for coronavirus, he confirmed in a statement Tuesday.

“Over the last 5 days I have been working remotely and self-isolating, testing negative every day through yesterday. Today, I tested positive for COVID-19 and am in quarantine,” Miller said in a statement.

After working from home for several days, Miller showed up to work Tuesday and tested positive, a source familiar with what happened told media.

He is the latest official caught up in an outbreak at the White House that has seen at least 10 others test positive. He’s also the latest member of the President’s team who prepped him for last week’s presidential debate to test positive.

The US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff have also gone into self-quarantine after the Coast Guard’s No. 2 tested positive for the novel coronavirus following a top-level meeting at the Pentagon last week.

US defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that the military’s top brass – with the exception of the Coast Guard vice commandant, Admiral Charles Ray – had all tested negative so far and were still carrying out their duties.

But the disclosure risks adding to a sense of uncertainty about operations at the highest levels of the U.S. government after President Donald Trump himself contracted the illness, along with senior White House staff and other Republican leaders.