One day after another White House staff member was infected with the virus, a top aide to U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence tested positive for Covid-19.

Friday, a day after President Donald Trump’s valet, Mr Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller tested positive.

The White House began testing for Mr Pence and Mr Trump on a regular basis and agreed to take “every single precaution to protect the president.”

The US death toll now exceeds 76,000 and states are beginning to reopen.

Six members of Mr Pence’s team were abruptly taken off his plane, Air Force 2, after being held on the tarmac outside Washington, DC on Friday for over an hour, as he was planning to fly to Iowa to meet religious leaders.

According to an anonymous US official quoted in the media pool article, the staff members had been in recent contact with Mrs Miller. The chairman and vice chairman did not.

Mrs Miller is Trump’s adviser Stephen Miller’s wife.