Irish prime minister tests positive for COVID just before Biden meeting

Less than 24 hours before he was due for meetings at the White House, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin tested positive for COVID-19. Martin had been attending an event in Washington Wednesday night when he received news of the positive result.  

President Biden was also at the same gala but it is unclear if the two leaders interacted. Both Martin, 61, and the president, 79, are vaccinated and boosted against the virus.

White House spokesman Chris Meagher told CBS News the president “was not a close contact” of the Taoiseach.   

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determines that a close contact has occurred when someone is “less than 6 feet away from an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period.”

Martin and Mr. Biden were attending the Ireland Funds Gala at the National Building Museum, an annual black-tie charity event where Martin was to be honored with a leadership award.

Dozens of lawmakers attended the fundraiser. Martin was seated next to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 

Pelosi was scheduled to introduce Martin on stage, but at the conclusion of her remarks instead said he had left the event to attend an urgent meeting. Moments later, Irish ambassador Daniel Mulhall walked on stage wearing an N95 mask and told the gala Martin had tested positive.

Pelosi’s office did not immediately comment.

According to an Irish government official, the Taoiseach’s antigen test around 5 p.m. had come back negative. Later, when a member of his traveling delegation tested positive, the entire delegation was retested again with PCR tests “out of an abundance of caution.”

Martin’s PCR test came back positive.

Martin had been scheduled to spend tomorrow, St. Patrick’s Day, with President Biden at the White House and Capitol. It is likely their bilateral engagements will now be held virtually, though neither delegation has released an updated schedule..

On Tuesday, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff tested positive for COVID-19.

Rebecca Kaplan contributed to this report.