Congressman Stephen Lynch, a Democrat from Massachusetts, tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine earlier this month. Lynch is one of many members of Congress who have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks.
A Lynch spokesperson said in a statement that his positive test result came after an employee in his Boston office tested positive.
“Congressman Lynch had received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine and then passed a negative COVID-19 test before attending President Biden’s inauguration,” said Molly Rose Tarpey, Lynch communications director. “While Mr. Lynch remains asymptomatic and feels fine, he will quarantine himself and vote by proxy in Congress for the next week.”
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Another member of the Massachusetts House delegation, Congressman Lori Trahan, also tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
“I am lucky to be asymptomatic at the moment, and I immediately started self-quarantine,” Trahan said in a report. statement posted on Twitter, adding that she “would cast my vote next week using the proxy voting system”.
Several House Democrats tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in January after spending time in lockdown with Republican members who refused to wear masks during the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. The announcements from Democratic Representatives Brad Schneider, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Pramila Jayapal came days after the Capitol’s attending physician had “exposed members to another resident with a coronavirus infection.”
More than 436,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and nearly 26 million have contracted the virus.