COVID-19 hits Joe Biden’s election campaign, Kamala Harris suspends travel

US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's vice-presidential pick Kamala Harris has suspended travel after her communications director tested positive for COVID-19, the campaign has said.

Biden's campaign said on Thursday that a flight crew member and the senator’s communications director Liz Allen tested positive for the coronavirus, but claimed that “neither of these people have had contact with Vice President Biden, Senator Harris or any other staffers since testing positive or in the 48 hours prior to their positive test results.”

The campaign said it first learned of the positive cases late Wednesday night.

Campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said Harris did not need to quarantine, but "out of an abundance of caution" would cancel travel and campaign virtually before resuming the campaign again on October 19.

“The vice president will continue on with his schedule today,” O’Malley Dillon said. “He was not in close contact with either of these individuals.”

On October 2, Biden’s rival, Republican President Donald Trump and his wife Melania were tested positive for COVID-19.

Trump spent only three days in a military hospital and on October 12, the Republican resumed his reelection campaign despite concerns he might be spreading the coronavirus.

Trump boarded the Air Force One without a mask on his way to Sanford, Florida, to attend a rally a large group of supporters.

Florida is a critical battleground state Trump who won by just over one percentage point in 2016.

Race is 'far closer' than polls suggest

Currently Trump is trailing Biden nationally by an average of a double-digit but Biden’s campaign manager has warned that the race is “far closer” than conventional wisdom suggests.

Dillon tweeted on Wednesday night that the contest is “a lot closer.”

“Early voting is already underway in many states,” Dillon said. “Millions of voters have already cast their ballots. But there is still a long way to go in this campaign, and we think this race is far closer than folks on this website [Twitter] think. Like a lot closer.”

Biden leads by 9.3 points nationally in the RealClearPolitics average with under three weeks to go before the election. Analysts say Trump could lose the national vote by about 4 points and still pull off a victory in the Electoral College.

Biden's lead over Trump has slipped since earlier this month, and now sits at 11 points, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

Biden held a 14-point lead over Trump, 53 to 39 percent, in the previous NBC/WSJ poll, which was published on October 4.

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