Stephen Miller tests positive for COVID-19

White House senior adviser Stephen Miller has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently self-quarantining, The Hill has confirmed.

Miller said he began a period of self-isolation several days ago before receiving a positive test for the coronavirus on 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.

Miller is among President Trump’s closest aides. He is frequently in the Oval Office and is one of Trump’s top policymakers and speechwriters. Miller was seen traveling Wednesday with the president alongside Hope Hicks, another top aide who tested positive the next day.

He is the latest White House official to test positive for the virus, following several other positive tests that have roiled the administration in recent days, with Trump himself testing positive last week.

Other top administration officials who have contracted the disease include White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and a handful of her deputies in the White House press department. Many of those who have tested positive in recent days were attendees at the White House’s event last weekend announcing the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court. 

Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, tested positive for COVID-19 in May. She is the communications director for Vice President Pence and at the time was the highest-profile White House staffer to contract the virus.

The surge in cases among White House staff has drawn increased scrutiny of the administration’s protocols to stop the spread of the virus near the president. The National Security Council moved in recent days to require all of its staffers to wear masks in common areas following Trump’s diagnosis.

Trump, who revealed last Friday that he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus, spent the weekend at Walter Reed hospital undergoing treatment. The president required supplemental oxygen on Friday and Saturday, but he was discharged on Monday after doctors said his vitals were good and he had passed clinical evaluations.

The president has maintained that he is feeling well and recorded multiple videos in recent days in an effort to show he remains healthy and in control. But his physicians have cautioned that he is not out of the woods yet, and his age and weight put him at a higher risk for serious complications from the virus.

Updated at 7:56 p.m.