Coronavirus pandemic in the US

Vice President Mike Pence is not planning to enter self-quarantine after his press secretary tested positive for coronavirus on Friday and plans to be at the White House on Monday, his office said.

Pence spokesperson Devin O'Malley said the vice president "will continue to follow the advice of the White House Medical Unit and is not in quarantine."

"Additionally, Vice President Pence has tested negative every single day and plans to be at the White House tomorrow," O'Malley said in the statement Sunday.

The announcement comes as the White House continues to urge governors to begin reopening their states even as the virus has edged closer to the West Wing with news that top members of the coronavirus task force will self-quarantine, in some form, after coming in contact with an individual who tested positive for the virus.

An official said there is extreme sensitivity inside the White House at the current state of affairs with officials recognizing the contradiction in telling states to reopen while the White House enhances protocols to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The official said Pence's schedule will probably be on the lighter side in the coming days, but that he's not doing a full self-quarantine.

Those steps come after President Donald Trump confirmed on Friday that Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for the virus. The President said that Miller has not come into contact with him but noted that she has been in contact with Pence.

"She's a wonderful young woman, Katie, she tested very good for a long period of time and then all of a sudden today she tested positive," Trump said during a meeting with Republican members of Congress at the White House.

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WATCH:

At least 79,528 people have died in the US from coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest tally of cases in the country.

There are at least 1,329,799 recorded cases of the disease in the US.

The total includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.

CNN is tracking Covid-19 cases across the US here.

Tesla filed a suit Saturday night against Alameda County, California, after local officials there refused to let the company reopen its Fremont factory.

In a series of tweets earlier Saturday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also threatened to move the company's headquarters to Texas or Nevada, where shelter-in-place rules are less restrictive.

"Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately," Musk tweeted. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

The automaker had planned to allow a fraction of its factory workers to return to work by Friday, but was warned by the Alameda County Health Department in a livestreamed town hall on Friday that such a move would be violating the county's rules.

"This has been a collaborative, good faith effort to develop and implement a safety plan that allows for reopening while protecting the health and well-being of the thousands of employees who travel to and from work at Tesla's factory," the Alameda Health Department responded on Saturday in a statement to CNN Business.

"The team at Tesla has been responsive to our guidance and recommendations, and we look forward to coming to an agreement on an appropriate safety plan very soon."

Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will self-quarantine for two weeks after he was exposed to a person at the White House who tested positive for Covid-19, a CDC spokesperson confirmed to CNN.

The Washington Post first reported Redfield's action.

The spokesperson noted that "in the event Dr. Redfield must go to the White House to fulfill any responsibilities as part of White House Coronavirus Task Force work, he will follow the safety practices set out by the CDC for those who may have been exposed."

"Those guidelines call for Dr. Redfield and anyone working on the Task Force at the White House to have their temperature taken and screened for symptoms each day, wear a face covering, and distance themselves from others," the spokesperson said.

Officials will not identify the person to whom Redfield was exposed.

White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere declined to confirm the report that Redfield will self-quarantine, but he said the physician to the President and White House operations officials "continue to work closely to ensure every precaution is taken to keep the President, First Family and the entire White House Complex safe and healthy."

The White House Covid-19 outbreak is undermining President Donald Trump's narrative that it's safe to open up the country and that diagnostic testing is of limited importance.

The news of three top health officials, all members of the administration's coronavirus task force, self-quarantining in some form after one of Trump's valets and another West Wing aide tested positive is jarring alongside Trump's desire to move on from the pandemic and to concentrate on the staggering economic dimension of the crisis.

The latest developments pose an essential question: If people around Trump are not protected from the virus in the most highly secured workplace in the country, how can it be safe for anyone else to go back to work?

It's not, and Trump knows it. He's worried that aides contracting the virus will undercut his message that the outbreak is fading, according to a person who spoke to him. He's asked why his valets weren't ordered to wear masks before this week, according to the person, even though that's the example he himself has set. And Trump has told people he doesn't want to be near anyone who hasn't been tested, according to the person who spoke to the President, CNN's Kevin Liptak reported.

But most Americans -- whom Trump hopes will contribute to opening the economy that is so crucial for his reelection campaign -- will not have access to the aggressive repeated testing and contact tracing now in place in the White House. Trump has argued that testing should primarily be up to governors to sort out. He has also repeatedly downplayed the importance of testing even though experts say that it is critical to establishing the penetration of the virus and to preventing new waves of infection as normal life begins to resume.

The discovery of the virus in Trump's inner sanctum comes at a moment when the White House has all but stopped offering medical and scientific information to the public in televised public briefings — furthering the impression that it wants to pivot away from the crisis, even when infections are rising in many states that are opening.

In the middle of the worst public health crisis for 100 years, officials like Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci have become far less visible. The coronavirus task force briefings have been replaced by media trolling sessions by new White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

However, Trump and so-far-unidentified senior administration officials are expected to hold a press briefing on testing on Monday afternoon.

Read the full report here.