A Different Senator Diagnosed with COVID-19

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., will be gone from the Senate in the coming days after testing positive for COVID-19, she announced Sunday. 

“After experiencing mild symptoms, I tested positive for COVID-19 today,” Duckworth said in a statement, The Hill reported. “I will continue working for the people of Illinois in isolation and follow medical guidance on when to return to the Senate chamber.”

Sen. Duckworth is the latest senator to test positive for COVID-19. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have also tested positive in recent weeks. 

Duckworth also tested positive for the virus in December, The Hill noted.

Senate Democrats will be down a vote on the floor this week as the upper chamber is set to kick off consideration of the first batch of spending bills and continue work on nominations, The Hill reported.

The Senate is expected to move on three bipartisan spending bills in the coming weeks: Agriculture-Food and Drug Administration, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development.

A steady uptick in cases since July and reports of new variants have fueled concern that COVID-19 will be back this fall and winter, The New York Times reported.

“There is no evidence that any of the variants in circulation cause more severe disease or evade immunity adroitly enough to render vaccines ineffective,” The Times wrote.

Older adults, pregnant women, and those with weakened immune systems might well choose to take the utmost precautions, such as masking most or all of the time and avoiding crowded indoor spaces, The Times added.