Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, a diagnosis he says may have come from wearing a mask.
“It is interesting, and I don’t know about everybody, but when I have a mask on, I’m moving it to make it comfortable, and I can’t help but wonder if that puts some germs in the mask. Keep your hands off the mask. Anyway, who knows,” Gohmert said in a video statement.
“Now that I apparently have it, I will be very, very careful to make sure that I don’t give it to anybody else,” he added.
Gohmert, 66, is asymptomatic, a term referring to someone not showing symptoms of COVID-19.
Gohmert was scheduled to fly with Republican President Donald Trump to Texas but when arriving at the White House in the morning, was tested for COVID-19.
The rapid test came back positive. A second test also came back positive.
Gohmert said he’s regularly been wearing a mask in recent days, including at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday.
“I’ve worn a mask more the last week or two than I have in the last four months,” he said.
Health officials have escalated calls to wear masks in recent weeks, asserting doing so could help prevent the spread of the CCP virus.
“To reduce the spread of COVID-19, CDC recommends that people wear cloth face coverings in public settings when around people outside of their household, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain,” a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told The Epoch Times in an email.
