Ross Wilson, the top U.S. diplomat in Kabul who was on one of the last flights out of Afghanistan, has tested positive for COVID
Ross Wilson, the top U.S. diplomat in Kabul who was on one of the last flights out of Afghanistan, has tested positive for COVID, a new report revealed on Wednesday.
Wilson, who was vaccinated, has very mild, cold-like symptoms, sources told Politico.
Wilson, who was the charge d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy, spent his final weeks in country working at the Kabul airport to help with the evacuation.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken posted a photo on social media of the U.S. Embassy staff, including Wilson, who carrying the folded American flag before the group boarded the last flight out of Kabul.
The State Department would not confirm whether or not Wilson tested positive for COVID.
'We're not in a position to speak to anyone's private health records. What I will say is that when our officers come out of Kabul and they spend time in a transit point, they are tested for COVID as a matter of course,' said spokesman Ned Price at Wednesday's briefing.
He acknowledged the evacuation conditions weren't conducive to social distancing but noted that could not be helped in the rush to get people out. Price also pointed everyone coming out of Kabul got a COVID test.
'I don't have to tell you that individuals who are being relocated who recently left Kabul have been involved in one of the most ambitious, one of the most intense operations this department and this government has ever undertaken. They have been around, I would presume, quite a few people. The social distancing may have been difficult at times. And so that is why we are taking these precautions for anyone who is recently come out of Kabul,' he said.
He said precautions were being taken.
'I can assure you that if we knew someone had tested positive for COVID, we would take appropriate precautions to relocate anyone like that back to the United States,' Price said.
In the crowded chaotic evacuation of Kabul, social distancing and other COVID precautions were not possible - above Afghan refugees with U.S. personnel on C-17 flight
The State Department said all evacuees out of Kabul are being tested for COVID; above refugees leave their U.S. Air Force flight out of Kabul when they arrive at the Rota naval base in Rota, southern Spain
On August 15, the CDC and Health and Human Services granted a Department of State request for a blanket humanitarian waiver of pre-departure COVID testing for individuals relocating to the U.S. from Afghanistan.
That was when the U.S. ramped up its evacuation efforts ahead of the American withdraw from the country.
The CDC rates Afghanistan at Level 3 - a high level of COVID, one step below the highest level possible.
Only one percent of the Afghan population is fully vaccinated, according to John Hopkins data.
Wilson told Politico in an email that he was one of the first people in the embassy to get vaccinated and 'made many appeals to people to get vaccinated as soon as they became available to us in January.'
Ross Wilson - holding the folded American flag - with the U.S. embassy staff ahead of their departure from Kabul
Afghanistan has a high rate of the COVID-19 virus. A State Department warning for travelers not to go there includes its high coronavirus rate as one of the reasons, along with the dangers associated with the Taliban back in power.
In late June, there was a major COVID outbreak at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. There were at least 159 cases. Several people had to be place on oxygen or were medically evacuated.
