“This afternoon, U.S. Representative Stephen F. Lynch received a positive test result for COVID-19 after a staff member in Congress’s office in Boston tested positive earlier in the week,” Lynch spokeswoman Molly Rose Tarpey said Friday in said a statement.
The Massachusetts Democrat plans to isolate it next week and will vote in Congress by proxy, according to Tarpey.
Covid-19 vaccines prevent disease but do not necessarily prevent infection. If someone tests positive and does not get sick, the vaccine worked as desired. If someone is positive within a few weeks of receiving the second dose, it may be because the vaccine has not yet fully kicked in.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says building immunity to Covid-19 usually takes several weeks after vaccination.
Lynch is the youngest member of Congress to have tested positive for the virus in recent months as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage in the country.
A few members of Congress and more than three dozen Capitol police officers tested positive for Covid-19 after the January 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol. Experts consider the riot, which erupted when Congress confirmed the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, a likely super-distributor event.