McConnell: Senate will be in Monday despite positive COVID-19 tests

Senators scheduled to consider the first of five U.S. District Court judges

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he expects senators back in Washington on Monday despite the uncertainty surrounding their exposure to COVID-19 in the wake of the positive diagnoses of President Donald Trump and Sen. Mike Lee.

“We’ve been operating in the same environment now since the 1st of May and been able to do Senate business. There’s no reason why we can’t continue to do that,” McConnell told a reporter Friday at an event in Kentucky.

That promise to continue operating as normal comes even though Trump, Lee and others who attended last weekend’s White House event announcing the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett disclosed positive coronavirus tests Friday. The positive tests have led some to call for the Senate to avoid meeting and follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that call for a period of self-isolation.

McConnell made his comments Friday afternoon, a few hours before North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis revealed he had tested positive for the virus. Tillis was among the Republican senators at Saturday’s White House event, and was seated mere feet away from Lee, Utah’s senior senator.

“I will be following the recommendations of my doctor and will be self-isolating at home for 10 days and notifying those I’ve been in close contact with. Thankfully, I have no symptoms and I feel well. As we all know, COVID-19 is a very contagious and deadly virus, especially because many carriers are asymptomatic,” Tillis said in a statement.

https://www.rollcall.com/2020/10/02/mcconnell-senate-will-be-in-monday-despite-positive-covid-19-tests/