Rep. Morgan Griffith announced today that he tested positive for COVID-19, joining the growing list of members of Congress to contract the disease.
The Virginia Republican announced he had tested positive on Twitter, where he wrote that he has been self-isolating since noticing symptoms, which he says are currently not “significant.”
— Morgan Griffith (@RepMGriffith) July 14, 2020
Griffith held a news conference last Thursday with other members of the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative and libertarian sect of Congress, where they encouraged President Trump and state officials to reopen schools across America in the fall for in-person instruction.
The caucus gave the conference during a time where state governments and public health experts are at odds with the federal government about how to safely reopen schools, if at all.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said this week that schools that do not reopen should not be eligible for federal assistance.
“We also heard it’s not a matter of safe versus unsafe,” Griffith said at the conference. “It’s about making sure that we mitigate the risks which we can easily do, we can take care of the students, we can take care of the teachers.”
Several members of Congress have tested positive for the virus in the past few months.
Indiana Republican Rep. Trey Hollingsworth announced on Facebook Monday that he had tested positive for antibodies, posting a photo of himself donating plasma.