Rep. Jacob LaTurner (R-Kan.), a freshman Republican, received a positive test result late on Jan. 6.
“Congressman LaTurner took the test as part of Washington DC’s travel guidelines that requires visitors be tested. He is not experiencing any symptoms at this time,” LaTurner’s office said in a Jan. 7 statement.
“Congressman LaTurner is following the advice of the House physician and CDC guidelines and, therefore, does not plan to return to the House floor for votes until he is cleared to do so,” the office added.
The statement was released about four hours after LaTurner had voted on the House floor during the joint session of Congress on an objection to counting the Electoral College votes from the state of Arizona.
LaTurner, 32, before being sworn in over the weekend, had been the state treasurer for Kansas. Prior to that, he spent four years as a state senator.
No other members participating in the joint session appeared to have tested positive.
Reps. Kay Granger (R-Texas), Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), and Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) missed votes after testing positive in recent days.
Granger said she was feeling great and had no symptoms.
Brady told supporters he couldn’t vote because of his diagnosis but he would have chosen to certify Joe Biden as president-elect.
Steel said she was showing no symptoms after being exposed to the disease but got tested out of an abundance of caution. She said she'd be quarantining, as did Bilirakis.
Dozens of members of Congress have tested positive for COVID-19 since the disease emerged in early 2020. The overwhelming majority of patients recover with zero or no symptoms, while some require hospital care.
The CCP virus primarily causes severe illness in people with underlying health conditions and the elderly, according to federal health data.
According to the CDC, 313,171 deaths in the United States have involved COVID-19. More than 100,000 of those who died were 85 or older and another 85,926 were between 75 and 84.
