Emergency crews filled with people wearing hazmat suits were waiting on the tarmac and immediately rushed to meet the team of Biden‘s Secretary of State Antony Blinken as they returned from a trip to Southeast Asia.
Blinken was forced to cut his trip short after a COVID infection was detected among a member of the press corps traveling with his team, and had to return to the U.S. early out of an “abundance of caution.”
The positive case was confirmed on December 15th, just as Blinken had arrived in Malaysia. He had been in Indonesia for the previous two days.
“Update from Blinken’s plane: We just landed on our next stop. These are the type of people who start approaching your plane after someone tests positive for corona in the secretary’s entourage (photo by @humeyra_pamuk),” the Washington Post’s John Hudson tweeted, along with a photo of the clearly overhyped scene.
Update from Blinken’s plane: We just landed on our next stop. These are the type of people who start approaching your plane after someone tests positive for corona in the secretary’s entourage (photo by @humeyra_pamuk) pic.twitter.com/afbNi02zwO
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) December 15, 2021
State Department spokesperson Ned Price confirmed that the secretary of state was forced to cancel planned meetings with the foreign minister of Thailand on December 16th over this COVID case.
Blinken expressed regret to the foreign minister about the cancellation via a phone call.
“The secretary extended an invitation for the foreign minister to visit Washington, D.C. at the earliest opportunity and noted that he looked forward to traveling to Thailand as soon as possible,” Price said. “They affirmed that they would use the upcoming engagements to further deepen the US-Thai alliance.”
The reporter who tested positive for COVID, who has not been identified, will be quarantined in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, until their symptoms subside.
Neither the Secretary of State nor anyone else on his staff has tested positive for the virus so far.
