Congressman Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday after receiving his second dose of Pfizer vaccine earlier this month. Lynch is one of several members of Congress who have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks.
A Lynch spokesman said in a statement that the result of his positive test came after a staff in his Boston office gave positive results.
“Congressman Lynch received a second dose of Pfizer vaccine and subsequently received a negative COVID-19 test before attending President Biden’s inauguration,” said Molly Rose Tarpey, Lynch’s communications director. “While Mr. Lynch remains asymptomatic and feeling well, he will self-quarantine and vote by proxy in Congress next week.”
Getty Images
Another member of the Massachusetts House delegation, Congresswoman Lori Trahan, also tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
“I’m lucky to be asymptomatic right now and I immediately started quarantining myself,” Trahan said in a statement. statement posted on Twitter, adding that she would “vote next week using the House’s proxy voting system.”
Several House Democrats tested positive for COVID-19 in early January after spending closed time with Republican members who refused to wear masks during the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The announcements by Democratic representatives Brad Schneider, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Pramila Jayapal came days after the Capitol doctor warned that members may have been “exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection.”
More than 436,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and nearly 26 million have contracted the virus.