US Vice-President JD Vance has announced the birth of his fourth child, a boy, with his wife Usha Vance.

Alec Neel Vance was born on Sunday morning, the vice-president said in a statement on social media.

“Usha and the baby are happy and healthy, and our kids are overjoyed to meet their little brother,” he added, also thanking the military doctors and staff at Walter Reed Medical Center for their care.

It is the first time a baby has been born to a sitting vice-president while in office for more than 150 years, according to the Associated Press. President Donald Trump hailed the news, writing in a post: “Congratulations! A perfect baby boy for the wonderful Vance family.”

The pair have three other children: Ewan, 9, Vivek, 6, and four-year-old Mirabel.

Usha Vance (née Chilukuri) was born and raised in San Diego, California, to a mechanical engineer father and a molecular biologist mother who had moved to the US from Andhra Pradesh, India.

She met JD Vance as a student at Yale Law School in 2010, when they joined a discussion group on “social decline in white America”.