Rep. Pramila Jayapal Tests Positive for COVID-19 Thanks to Republican Lawmakers Who Refused to Wear Masks

Rep. Pramila Jayapal has tested positive for Covid-19. Hours after Trump supporters attacked the Capitol building on Jan. 6, Jayapal, said she was evacuated to a secure location with other members of  the Congress and their staff. 

In a statement issued after her positive test result, she said: “Hours after President Trump incited a deadly assault on our Capitol, our country, and our democracy, many Republicans still refused to take the bare minimum COVID-19 precaution and simply wear a damn mask in a crowded room during a pandemic — creating a superspreader event on top of a domestic terrorist attack.” She also noted that “too many Republicans have refused to take this pandemic and virus seriously, and in doing so, they endanger everyone around them.” 

Jayapal became the second Congresswoman to test positive after the ordeal at the Congress hideout with several maskless Republican legislators. The first one to contract the virus is Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a 75-year-old cancer survivor.

Jayapal, who is isolating as per the Capitol physician’s instructions, she said she “will continue to work to the best of my ability because the deep urgency of our many crises is paramount.”Jayapal had told the Cut that she had planned to get a COVID test in coming days, even before the warning notice from Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician of the United States Congress. 

“The circumstances in the secure room had worried her enough that she’d also instructed her D.C. staff not to return to their offices until she got a result, so as not to endanger them.”

“The circumstances in the secure room had worried her enough that she’d also instructed her D.C. staff not to return to their offices until she got a result, so as not to endanger them,” the report said. As per the Cut, Jayapal wasn’t feeling well on Jan. 11 and feared that she had indeed been infected. 

The Washington Post had reported that Dr. Monahan, advised representatives and Congressional staff on Jan. 10 that those in the secured room could have, “been exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection.” Jayapal also called for “serious fines to be immediately levied on every single member who refuses to wear a mask in the Capitol. 

“Additionally,” she said, “any member who refuses to wear a mask should be immediately removed from the floor by the Sergeant at Arms. This is not a joke. Our lives and our livelihoods are at risk, and anyone who refuses to wear a mask should be fully held accountable for endangering our lives because of their selfish idiocy.”

In an interview with The Cut on Jan 7 that she began quarantining immediately after the attack on the U.S. Capitol. “I’m quarantining now because I am convinced that where we ended up, in the secured room — where there were over 100 people and many were Republicans not wearing masks — was a super spreader event.”

Recalling the harrowing details of the fateful day, Jayapal told The Cut that from being in the gallery of the U.S. Congress to being rescued by the police to be taken to a secret location, she had only one worry — she had one of her knees replaced five weeks ago and is using a cane. “My concern was would I be able to get up and down quickly enough if we needed to get out,” she told The Cut. She could hear shots being fired. They were holed up for over an hour before they were escorted to safety.