Congressman Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine earlier this month. Lynch is one of several members of Congress who have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks.
A Lynch spokesman said in a statement that his positive test result came after a staff member in his Boston office tested positive.
“Congressman Lynch received the second dose of Pfizer vaccine and then received a negative COVID-19 test before attending President Biden’s inauguration,” said Molch Rose Tarpey, Lynch’s communications director. “While Mr Lynch remains asymptomatic and feels good, he will place self-quarantine and will vote in the Congress through the plenipotentiary during the coming week.”
Getty Images
Another member of the Massachusetts delegation, Congresswoman Lori Trahan, also tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
“I’m happy to be asymptomatic at the moment, and I immediately started self-quarantine,” Trahan said in a statement. statement posted on Twitterand added that she would ‘cast my vote next week using the House’s proxy voting system’.
Several House Democrats tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in January after closing time with Republican members who refused to wear masks during the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The announcements by Democratic representatives Brad Schneider, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Pramila Jayapal came days after the attending physician for the Capitol warned that members may be “exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection.”
More than 436,000 Americans died from COVID-19, and nearly 26 million contracted the virus.