US Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff has tested positive for COVID-19, a spokesman has said, the latest in a list of figures connected to President Donald Trump's administration to do so.
Marc Short began quarantining and was assisting in the contract tracing process, Devin O'Malley, a spokesman for Mr Pence, said in a statement on Saturday.
"Vice President Pence and Mrs Pence both tested negative for COVID-19 today, and remain in good health," he added.
Mr Pence, who has been campaigning ahead of the 3 November election, will maintain his current schedule in consultation with White House doctors, the spokesman said.
Marc Short, centre, chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, pictured in December, 2019. Source: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Sipa U
A surge in COVID-19 cases led to the United States reaching a record number of daily infections for a second day running on Saturday, with nearly 89,000 new cases.
A list of people connected to the White House have contracted the virus, including President Trump,.
Mr Trump has downplayed the seriousness of the virus, calling for businesses to reopen so the economy can recover. Joe Biden, his Democratic opponent in the upcoming polls, has .
'That's Donald Trump's presidency'
Meanwhile, an energised Mr Biden and Barack Obama on Saturday accused Mr Trump of "screwing up" his handling of the virus.
Mr Trump plowed through three campaign rallies in one day, targeting separate battleground states as he sought to close the gap with Mr Biden.
But the president's efforts have been inescapably overshadowed by a grim reality: the virus has claimed more than 224,000 American lives, with no end in sight, and a majority of voters say Mr Trump has handled the crisis poorly.
"That's Donald Trump's presidency," Mr Biden said Saturday during a drive-in rally, one of two events in his native Pennsylvania, a critical swing state. He spoke from a stage decorated with bales of hay and Halloween pumpkins.
"Donald Trump said, and is still saying, we're rounding the corner. It's going away. We're learning how to live with it," he said.
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a drive-in campaign stop at Bucks County Community College in Bristol, Pennsylvania. Source: AP
"We're not learning how to live with it. You're asking us to learn how to die with it and it's wrong."
The Biden campaign also deployed a key surrogate, former president Barack Obama, who slammed the Trump administration's COVID-19 response.
"The idea that somehow this White House has done anything but completely screw this thing up is nonsense," Mr Obama told supporters at a drive-in rally in Miami, Florida.
"Donald Trump isn't suddenly going to protect all of us. He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself," he Obama added, referring to Mr Trump's hospitalisation three weeks ago.
Also slamming the president's failure to denounce white supremacy, and the many times he claims he has lied in public, among other issues, Mr Obama called on supporters to vote for his former vice president.
"We can make things better... That's what voting is about, not making things perfect, but making things better," he said. "If we vote up and down the ticket like never before, we will elect Joe Biden."
'I get it'
Mr Trump shrugged off Mr Obama's criticism, saying on Twitter that the former president had only "47 people" at his event.
"No energy, but still better than Joe!" he quipped.
He shrugged off polls which continue to show his Democratic rival Biden leading the race.
"They want to depress you," he said of the political and media outlets reporting the numbers. "These polls are much better than four years ago."
"This election is a choice between a Trump super-recovery and a Biden depression," he told supporters under a hot sun in North Carolina, highlighting promises of a cure to COVID-19 and a rapid economic recovery.
Mr Biden has a firm lead in national polls, and narrower leads in many battleground states like Florida that typically decide the winner of US presidential elections.
President Donald Trump voted in his adopted home of Florida before hitting the campaign trail for rallies in three swing states Source: The New York Times
Earlier on Saturday, Mr Trump cast his own vote at a public library in Florida, telling reporters with a smile: "I voted for a guy named Trump".
He became one of nearly 55 million Americans to cast early ballots in a year when the coronavirus has made in-person voting problematic.
Campaigning at a frenetic pace, Trump then hop-scotched from North Carolina to Ohio, and later to Wisconsin, where he doubled down on his optimism, repeating claims that the country is "rounding the turn" of the pandemic.
Referring to earlier comments by Mr Biden warning of a "dark winter" with COVID-19, Mr Trump said he thought his rival was "very dark".
"They say you sound too optimistic," he added, of himself. "That's right, because I love this country. We're optimists... Our country next year will be greater than ever before."
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