U.S. Sen. Susan Collins on Sunday said she has tested negative for COVID-19, and wishes her Republican Senate colleagues well after three of them caught the disease.
“Although I had almost no contact with my three colleagues who have tested positive, I thought it prudent to get tested,” Maine’s senior senator said on Twitter Sunday morning. “My thoughts are with the President, FLOTUS, my colleagues & all who are infected.”
Collins spokeswoman Annie Clark said Sunday that the senator took the test on Saturday afternoon.
President Trump announced last week that he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19, and the president was admitted Friday night into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for treatment.
Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin have tested positive as well.
The White House has long eschewed masks and social distancing during the pandemic, and both Tillis and Lee were sitting in close proximity during a packed, mostly unmasked ceremony in the White House Rose Garden on Sept. 26 when Trump announced the nomination of U.S. Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
I have tested negative for COVID. Although I had almost no contact with my three colleagues who have tested positive, I thought it prudent to get tested. My thoughts are with the President, FLOTUS, my colleagues & all who are infected.
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) October 4, 2020
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