Nearly 900 employees of the Secret Service – the agency charged with protecting the president and other top U.S. officials – contracted the coronavirus over the course of a year between March 2020 and March 2021, documents reveal, according to a report.
The disclosure comes almost two weeks after Secret Service agents came in contact with a Washington crowd as they guarded Vice President Kamala Harris at a Pride event following her return from a trip to Guatemala and Mexico.
The vaccination status of the vice president’s security detail was unknown.
Information obtained by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) shows that 881 people on the Secret Service payroll were diagnosed with the coronavirus over the one-year period, The Associated Press reported.
More than half of those infected, or 477, worked in the special agent division, which protects the president, vice president, other government leaders and their families, according to the AP.
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CREW obtained the government data through the Freedom of Information Act, the report said. Names and work assignments of those with positive tests for the coronavirus were not disclosed, the AP reported.