WASHINGTON • A top White House security official, Mr Crede Bailey, is gravely ill with Covid-19 and has been hospitalised since last month, according to four people familiar with his condition.

The White House has not publicly disclosed Mr Bailey's illness. He became sick before the Sept 26 Rose Garden event - held by United States President Donald Trump to announce his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett - that has been connected to more than a dozen cases of the disease.

A White House spokesman declined to comment on Mr Bailey.

He is in charge of the White House security office, which handles credentialing for access to the White House and works closely with the US Secret Service on security measures throughout the compound.

A career federal employee who has seldom appeared in the news, Mr Bailey was swept up in a controversy last year over security clearances granted to Mr Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Mr Bailey privately testified to the House Oversight Committee that he did not face pressure from others at the White House to grant clearances, according to a report by The Hill.

BLOOMBERG