CIA director tests positive for COVID-19, has mild symptoms

WASHINGTON – CIA Director William Burns has tested positive for COVID-19, according to an agency statement Thursday.

The statement said Burns is experiencing mild symptoms and working from home, with plans to return to the office after five days and testing negative. The director is fully vaccinated and boosted.

Burns last met with President Joe Biden on Wednesday morning in a socially distanced meeting where the director wore an N-95 mask. The agency says Burns is not considered a close contact of the president by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention standards. The nature of the meeting was not disclosed by the CIA.

Biden is not known to have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began. Several people in recent weeks have tested positive for the virus shortly after seeing the president, including press secretary Jen Psaki, deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin.