Gov. Gavin Newsom began a 10-day quarantine after a staff member who came in contact with him tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday. The governor tested negative, as did other staff members, a Newsom spokesperson said.
“The governor and staff will be tested again in the next few days and continue to follow state and CDC guidelines,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We wish our staff member who tested positive well.”
The governor gave his regular Monday news briefing on the state’s coronavirus response from his home office. Asked about the precautions he takes around staffers, Newsom said, “Everybody wears masks; we have very strict guidelines, rules, procedures, temperature checks. People are being tested all the time. Most folks are teleworking. So this seems deeply anomalous. Just shows the virulence of this disease.”
Newsom said he had most recently been near the infected staffer on Friday.
This is the second time in a month that Newsom has had to quarantine. In late November, the governor and his family began a two-week quarantine after three of his four children came into contact with a California Highway Patrol officer who had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The governor’s office cited privacy laws in withholding the identity of the infected staff member and the office where the person works.
“State policy for state agencies after an employee tests positive includes protocols if an individual was potentially positive at work — including deep cleaning of shared spaces and asking those who interacted with the individual or shared work spaces to isolate and seek testing,” the governor’s office statement said.
Matthias Gafni is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mgafni
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