WASHINGTON/WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – Two U.S. Republican lawmakers, Senator Ted Cruz and Rep. Paul Gosar, said on Sunday they will quarantine themselves after contact at a late February gathering of conservatives with someone who has since tested positive for coronavirus.
Cruz and Gosar were among the U.S. politicians and activists who gathered just outside Washington Feb. 26-29 for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which met this year under the theme “America vs. Socialism.”
The conference organizer, American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp, said he had “incidental” contact with the attendee who tested positive, but that he felt “healthy as a horse” and had not heard of anyone else falling ill.
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence also attended the gathering in late February, but Schlapp told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” that neither had contact with the person infected by the virus.
More than half of the 50 U.S. states have reported cases, including the first cases in Virginia and Connecticut on Sunday. As the outbreak spreads, daily life has been disrupted, with some concerts and conferences canceled and some universities telling students to stay home and take classes online.
The coronavirus outbreak, which originated in China last year and causes the sometimes deadly respiratory illness COVID-19, has killed more than 3,600 globally.
Cruz said that while at the conference he had a less than one-minute interaction, consisting of a handshake and brief conversation, with the unidentified individual who has since tested positive for coronavirus.
Cruz said in a statement he had no symptoms and had been advised that because the contact was 10 days ago, the average incubation is five to six days, and the interaction lasted less than a minute the chances of his having caught the virus were “extremely low.”
“Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution … I have decided to remain at my home in Texas this week, until a full 14 days have passed since the CPAC interaction,” he added, saying physicians have advised him that people he has dealt with since CPAC “should not be concerned about potential transmission.”
Gosar, who said he was with the individual for an extended period and they shook hands several times, also said he had no symptoms but would remain at his home in Arizona until 14 days had passed.
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