Cathy McMorris Rodgers tests positive for COVID-19, quarantining in Spokane with mild symptoms

Oct. 8—WASHINGTON — Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has tested positive for COVID-19, the Spokane Republican announced Friday.

"Yesterday, despite being fully vaccinated, I tested positive for COVID-19," she wrote in a statement. "My symptoms are mild, and I am quarantining at home and following CDC and local health guidelines."

Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend a person who has tested positive for the virus can be around other people beginning 10 days after the onset of symptoms, as long as they have not had a fever in the past 24 hours and other symptoms are improving.

"As I have said for months, I encourage everyone in Eastern Washington to talk to your doctor about getting the vaccine if you haven't already," McMorris Rodgers said.

So far, at least 88 members of Congress have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the independent website GovTrack. Most of those diagnoses came before vaccines were widely available, in the early weeks of the pandemic in March and April 2020 and during last winter's surge in cases.

In her statement, McMorris Rodgers said her offices in Spokane, Walla Walla, Colville and Washington, D.C., would remain open.

Under special rules, the House of Representatives is still allowing members to participate in hearings remotely and vote by proxy. The House is scheduled to return from its recess ahead of schedule to vote Tuesday on a bill to raise the federal debt limit and prevent a federal default.

Orion Donovan-Smith's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.