Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) announced Tuesday that he has tested negative for the Chinese coronavirus, but will remain in self-isolation in his home state of Utah.
“Thankfully I’ve tested negative for COVID-19,” Romney wrote on Twitter. “Nevertheless, guidance from my physician, consistent with the CDC guidelines, requires me to remain in quarantine as the test does not rule out the onset of symptoms during the 14-day period.”
Romney and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) flew back on a private jet to Utah after learning Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who he had close contact with in recent days, tested positive for the illness.
“If I were to get COVID-19 or if Mike were to get it, we would certainly want to be in a place where we have our own physicians and our own hospital,’ Romney said in an interview the Salt Lake Tribune. “If I’m in Washington, D.C., I don’t have a relationship with physicians there. And I don’t even know which hospital you go to.”
Romney said he will miss a vote expected Tuesday evening on Congress’s rescue package designed to alleviate Americans’ financial strain caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
“It’s very frustrating not to be there in the room where it happens, as they say,” Romney stated. “But I am doing my best to influence thinking and action, particularly on the Democratic side of the aisle.”
Romney, the only Republican senator to vote to convict President Donald Trump in the upper chamber’s impeachment trial, also lambasted the Democrats for attempting to inject funding provisions for a slew of progressive causes.
“I have been connecting with Democrats whom I respect and basically saying, ‘Are you guys nuts? Have you lost your mind? Do you not understand? This is not a time to go through your liberal wish list. This is a time to get money to small businesses and to the people who are hurting,” he fumed.