COVID-19: 12 Members of US Congress And Staffers Self-Quarantining

Over the past two weeks, nine members of the United States Congress and three staffers working for congressmen and senators have entered self-quarantine after interacting with persons either confirmed or suspected to be infected with COVID-19.

In addition, both President Donald Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence, recently came into contact with at least two COVID-19 confirmed persons but still refuse to take tests that will confirm the presence of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This highly-infectious coronavirus is the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2.

Of the nine members of the U.S. Congress in 14-day self-quarantine are seven are Republicans and two Democrats. Six of these people are congressmen with the House of Representatives. The three senators are Lindsey Graham from South Carolina (one of Trump's top sycophants), Ted Cruz from Texas and Rick Scott from Florida, who are all Republicans. Cruz ran against Trump for the party's presidential nomination in 2016. Scott and Graham announced their self-quarantine on Thursday.

Republican members of the House in self-quarantine are Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Rep. Paul Gozar (R-AZ) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC). The Democrats are Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) and Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA).

Collins and Gaetz were the first to enter into self-quarantine. They went into self-quarantine after finding out they had been in direct contact with a fellow Republican now confirmed with COVID-19 at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland in late February.

Collins also shook hands with Trump on March 6 when Trump traveled to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Georgia en route to two days of golfing at his resort at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

On the other hand, Gaetz flew back to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland with Trump on Monday and isolated himself from others on the plane. He later announced he was entering self-quarantine about an hour after he got off the plane with Trump.

On the other hand, Collins didn't confirm if he's been tested for the coronavirus, unlike Gaetz.

"This afternoon, I was notified by CPAC that they discovered a photo of myself and the patient who has tested positive for coronavirus," said Collins.

"While I feel completely healthy and I am not experiencing any symptoms, I have decided to self-quarantine at my home for the remainder of the 14-day period out of an abundance of caution."

Two staffers from Collins' office later quarantined themselves as a precaution. On Wednesday, it was learned a staffer working for Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Sen. Cantwell's office said this woman staffer had no known contact with the senator or other lawmakers. Confirmation of the infection, however, led Sen. Cantwell to close her DC office for the remainder of the week. The senator said her other staffers will work remotely. She asked her other staffers to be tested in light of this development.