Labor Chief Scalia Returns to Office After Negative Covid Test

Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia tested negative for Covid-19 twice last week, after he was potentially exposed to the novel coronavirus at a White House ceremony in late September, and has worked from the office this week despite not having been tested since Friday.

Tests administered Sept. 30 and Oct. 2, both of which showed Scalia was negative, “are the last tests for the secretary,” Labor Department spokesman Robert Bozzuto told Bloomberg Law. He said Scalia has been working from the office this week. He declined to comment when asked why the secretary hasn’t received follow-up tests since Oct. 2, as have other senior administration officials who attended the Sept. 26 Rose Garden event where President Donald Trump announced his U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett.

Scalia and his wife, mother, and brother were pictured at the event without masks. They were seated in proximity to former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and first lady Melania Trump, both of whom later tested positive for the virus. Photographs also showed Scalia mask-less at a subsequent private reception inside the White House to honor Coney Barrett, who clerked for the labor secretary’s father, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

A negative test result doesn’t provide conclusive evidence that someone hasn’t contracted Covid-19. The virus’s incubation period can extend up to 14 days, though the period from exposure to onset of symptoms more often lasts four to five days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition to Trump, at least three Republican senators and a number of Trump aides have tested positive for Covid-19 in recent days, including Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, senior presidential adviser Hope Hicks, campaign manager Bill Stepien, and assistant Nick Luna.

Some officials who also attended the ceremony for Coney Barrett, including Attorney General William Barr and Vice President Mike Pence, have reportedly received routine testing after they initially tested negative on Oct. 2, the day Trump announced he had contracted Covid-19.

DOL Solicitor Kate O’Scannlain, who was also pictured at the Rose Garden event, tested negative for Covid-19 on Oct. 2, Bozzuto said. O’Scannlain has resumed reporting to the office this week as well, he added. Bozzuto declined to address why O’Scannlain, DOL’s third-ranking official, hasn’t received additional testing, nor would he say whether there are plans for Scalia and O’Scannlain to be tested in the future.

Recent Travel

Scalia traveled to four states between his attendance at the Sept. 26 event and the president’s Oct. 2 infection announcement, according to DOL statements last week. The events were routine speaking engagements where Scalia made the case that the economy is rebounding from the pandemic.

Two days after the White House event, Scalia traveled to Cleveland to tour a Fredon Corp. manufacturing facility and meet with company leaders and staff. The following day, Sept. 29, he visited a factory in Erie, Pa., and stopped in Buffalo, N.Y., for a roundtable discussion with business and community leaders. And on Sept. 30, Scalia was in Jacksonville, Fla., to speak at a Navy base with Karen Pence, wife of the vice president.

Bozzuto declined to comment on whether Scalia has adjusted travel plans this week.

The department’s media representatives didn’t immediately answer when asked about the health status of Scalia’s family members who were at the Rose Garden ceremony. The secretary’s brother, the Rev. Paul Scalia, wrote an online message to his parishioners at St. James Catholic Church in Falls Church, Va., informing them that he and his family members who attended the White House event had all tested negative.