America’s biggest pro-Israel group warned the thousands who attended its national conference earlier this week that some people there may have been in contact with a confirmed coronavirus case.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee wrote in a letter that it posted to Twitter that a delegation that attended the Washington conference has been self-quarantined over that possible contact.
“We have been made aware that a group of Policy Conference attendees from New York was potentially in contact prior to the conference with an individual who contracted coronavirus. That individual did not attend Policy Conference,” AIPAC wrote in its letter.
While the group cautioned that it knows of no positive tests among people actually at the conference yet and that D.C. health officials had told it “there is no reason to ‘sound the alarm,’” those AIPAC attendees have “been added to the self-quarantine list,” the letter explained.
More than 18,000 people attended the gathering from Sunday to Tuesday at the Washington Convention Center. Present were several top Trump administration officials such as Vice President Mike Pence, such important lawmakers as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, and one of the (then) 2020 Democratic presidential contenders — media mogul Michael Bloomberg.
Worldwide, the COVID-19 respiratory disease has killed more than 3,200 people and sickened about 90,000 more — mostly in China. The U.S. has seen 11 deaths and more than 100 infections.
