U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday tested negative for the novel coronavirus after a close aide contracted the virus, a spokeswoman said.
Incoming White House Senior Adviser Cedric Richmond, who developed symptoms on Wednesday, was not in close contact with Biden having spent less than 15 consecutive minutes with him while masked in an open-air setting, the spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.
U.S. authorities define close contact as 15 minutes or more within six feet of an infected person.
Democrat Biden, who defeated Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election, will be the oldest ever U.S. president at the time of inauguration on Jan. 20 at the age of 78. His age puts him in a higher-risk group for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus.
Biden took a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test on Thursday and the virus was not detected, according to the statement.
With the first COVID-19 vaccine being rolled out and the second one likely to be greenlit soon in the United States, Biden has said he is hoping to publicly take a shot in a bid to assure people it is safe to do so.
On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence will publicly receive a vaccine to "promote the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and build confidence among the American people," the White House said.
Trump contracted the virus and recovered from the illness in October.
Currently, health care workers and long-term care facility residents, seen as the most vulnerable, are prioritized in the vaccination program.
In the United States, more than 17 million people have been infected and 310,000 have died in the pandemic, with both figures higher than any other country in the world, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.
