Congressman Stephen Lynch tests positive for COVID-19 after receiving second dose of vaccine – CBS News

Congressman Stephen Lynch, a Democrat from Massachusetts, tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine earlier this month. Lynch is one of several members of Congress who have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks.

A spokesperson for Lynch said in a statement that his positive test result came after a staffer in his Boston office tested positive.

“Congressman Lynch had received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine and subsequently received a negative COVID-19 test prior to attending President Biden’s Inauguration,” said Molly Rose Tarpey, Lynch’s communications director. “While Mr. Lynch remains asymptomatic and feels fine, he will self-quarantine and will vote by proxy in Congress during the coming week.”

Another member of the Massachusetts House delegation, Congresswoman Lori Trahan, also tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.

“I am fortunate to currently be asymptomatic, and I have immediately begun to self-quarantine,” Trahan said in a statement posted to Twitter, adding that she would “cast my votes next week using the House’s proxy voting system.”

Several House Democrats tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in January after spending time in lockdown with Republican members who refused to wear masks during the attack on the Capitol on January 6. The announcements from Democratic Representatives Brad Schneider, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Pramila Jayapal came days after the attending physician for the Capitol warned members may have been “exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection.”

More than 436,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, and nearly 26 million have contracted the virus.