Sara Haines Absent from 'The View' After Having 'Close Contact' with COVID-19, Says Joy Behar

Sara Haines is the latest panelist off from The View due to COVID-19 exposure.

Tuesday's episode was already missing series moderator Whoopi Goldberg after she was diagnosed with COVID-19. As the episode commenced, co-host Joy Behar announced the reason for Haines' absence.

"Sara was in close contact, so she's not here," Behar, 79, said. "It's like Agatha Christie, 'And then there were three.' "

Behar added that Haines, 44, "feels fine" but is "laying low today." Actress Yvette Nicole Brown appeared in Haines' place.

When the show's panelists performed their co-hosting duties from home Monday, they opened up about how COVID-19 impacted them over the holidays. Currently, the virus' highly-transmissible Omicron variant is spreading rapidly across the nation.

"I was able to get away for a couple of days with my two oldest kids before the holiday. I was heading to Florida, so I was going into the lion's den," Haines said. "But I came out okay. We got to see my parents, my siblings."

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Upon returning from her trip, Haines and her children had to navigate her husband Max Shifrin's COVID-19 diagnosis.

"I came back to a COVID positive husband. So Max got COVID and we had to quarantine within the house," she said. "I had the kids, we were in K-95 masks. We were lucky we were in a house now because we never could have done this in an apartment. But we've stayed clear and I've tested negative four times."

"I'm boosted, vaccinated. We were really prudent with our hands and staying away from each other," she added. "The kids still ask today, 'Can we touch Papa? Is he better yet?'"

Haines confirmed that everyone in her family is "all healthy now."

"We did dodge a bit of a bullet there, but it hit us as well," she added. "This one doesn't seem like anyone's going to get out of this one unscathed."

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Haines' absence from The View comes one day after Goldberg, 66, tested positive for COVID-19.

"They say there's no place like home for the holidays and that's exactly where we are this year," Behar said at the top of Monday's episode. "Happy New Year from all of our living rooms. As you can see we're back in boxes and doing the show remotely — hopefully for just a week, I'm praying that it's just a week but you never know because this omicron thing is all over the place."

Behar continued, "Why am I here instead of Whoopi? Well, Whoopi, unfortunately, tested positive over the break but she'll be back probably next week. Since she's vaxxed and boosted, her symptoms have been very, very, mild. But we're being super cautious here at The View."

Sunny Hostin then revealed she and her mom had COVID-19 over the holidays, but they have since recovered.

Also on Monday, Ana Navarro said her father tested positive for the virus around Christmastime. Fortunately, the CNN journalist's father was able to visit on New Year's Day after receiving a negative COVID-19 test.