Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) said he and several of members of his senior staff are “officially under self-quarantine” after sustaining contact with a person at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) who has since been hospitalized with the novel form of coronavirus, or COVID-19.
“I am announcing that I, along with 3 of my senior staff, are officially under self-quarantine after sustained contact at CPAC with a person who has since been hospitalized with the Wuhan Virus,” he tweeted Sunday, referring to the disease by its suspected place of origin, Wuhan, China.
“My office will be closed for the week,” he continued. “We are all asymptomatic and feel great. But we are being proactive and cautious.”
“Keep the person in the hospital in your prayers,” he added. “We are in touch with the CDC and the White House. They are doing a great job staying on top of this.”
On Saturday, the American Conservative Union (ACU) said a person who attended CPAC this year was later discovered to have tested positive for COVID-19. The group said the person had been exposed to the virus prior to attending the conference.
Though the group said the person did not come into contact with President Trump at the event, ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp later said that he had interacted with the individual before shaking the president’s hand.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also said on Sunday that he would be placing himself under quarantine this week after coming into contact with the infected conference attendee.
“I’m not experiencing any symptoms, and I feel fine and healthy,” he tweeted Sunday. “Given that the interaction was 10 days ago, that the average incubation period is 5-6 days, that the interaction was for less than a minute, and that I have no current symptoms, the medical authorities have advised me that the odds of transmission from the other individual to me were extremely low.
“The physicians further advised that testing is not effective before symptoms manifest, and my brief interaction with the individual does not meet the CDC criteria for self-quarantine,” he added. But the Texas senator said he would be staying home this week “out of an abundance of caution.”
Much of the public has been on edge in recent weeks over the global outbreak of COVID-19, which has infected over 100,000 worldwide. However, although no vaccine has yet been found for the disease, a chunk of those infected have since recovered from the virus. According to data from the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, as of Sunday evening there have been nearly 62,000 recoveries.