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Reports: More than 100 Secret Service agents out with COVID-19 or in quarantine

The spread of COVID-19 within the Secret Service is believed to be partly linked to Trump campaign rallies in the final weeks before the election.

More than 100 U.S. Secret Service agents across the country are infected with COVID-19 or are quarantining, according to multiple reports.

The Washington Post, which was first to report the outbreak within the agency that protects President Donald Trump, put the number at more than 130, citing three people familiar with agency staffing.

The majority of the number involves people who are quarantining because of who they had recently been in contact with, USA TODAY reported, citing a source. It's not clear how many of the agents are in the Protective Division, which has the closest contact with Trump.

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The spread within the Secret Service is believed to be partly linked to Trump campaign rallies in the final weeks before the election.

Secret Service agents do not only protect Trump, but other White House officials and President-elect Joe Biden. The service also sends advance teams to locations, where the president will be visiting, to do security sweeps.

Agents were also in the presidential limousine last month when Trump, who was infected with COVID-19 at the time, briefly left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to wave to supporters who had gathered outside the facility.

Credit: AP
President Donald Trump drives past supporters gathered outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020.

The U.S hit a new record of 153,000 cases in one day Thursday, per a tracker from Johns Hopkins University. A check of the university's tracker showed the number of new cases Friday had already passed that as of 7 p.m. EST. Final numbers won't be released until after midnight.

The U.S. hit a record number of active COVID-19 hospitalizations Friday with 68,516, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

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