Over 130 Secret Service officers have contracted COVID-19 or are in quarantine, new report says

• More than 130 Secret Service officers have recently tested positive for COVID-19 or are quarantining because they might have been exposed to the virus, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing three people familiar with agency staffing.
• The sources told The Post that the outbreak might be connected to President Donald Trump's campaign travel before Election Day.
• The number would represent about 10% of the 1,300 Secret Service officers who provide security during presidential trips and official events, The Post reported.
• Several people in Trump's circle have tested positive for the virus over the past week.

More than 130 Secret Service officers assigned to the White House and President Donald Trump's travels have recently tested positive for COVID-19 or are quarantining because they might have been exposed to the virus, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing three people familiar with agency staffing.

The sources told The Post that the outbreak might be connected to the president's campaign stops before Election Day. Trump traveled to several states to hold rallies, where many people did not take measures to help curb virus transmission, such as wearing masks and social distancing.

"Being down more than 100 officers is very problematic," a former senior Secret Service supervisor told the newspaper. "That does not bode well for White House security."

The number represents about 10% of the 1,300 Secret Service officers who work for the White House and the vice president's residence and provide security during presidential trips and official events, The Post reported.

A White House spokesman, Judd Deere, told The Post that the Trump administration takes "every case seriously."

Several people in Trump's circle have tested positive for the virus over the past week. They include Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff; Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development; two campaign advisors, David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski; and a handful of White House personnel and Republican National Committee staffers.

The president and his allies have often downplayed the severity of the virus and ignored health protocols since the start of the pandemic. Last month, the White House faced a similar eruption of cases, including Trump himself.

Trump has posed health risks to his travel-security unit beyond the campaign trail. Medical professionals and former Secret Service officers said they were stunned when the president, while he was still infected with COVID-19 in October, staged a drive-by photo-op outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he was hospitalized. Two Secret Service officers in personal protective gear accompanied Trump, who wore a mask, in the car.

"It's hard to believe that someone who's that contagious would get into a vehicle with nothing more than a fabric mask. His hands weren't even covered," a Secret Service veteran told Business Insider's Sonam Sheth at the time. "As hard as you try to like the president and you want to believe in his policies, his judgment is just so flawed and so selfish."