COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Three Ohio House members have tested positive for COVID-19 since attending session and committee hearings at the Statehouse last week, according to state lawmakers.
State Rep. Rick Carfagna, a Delaware County Republican, announced last Friday that he’d tested positive for COVID-19, having woken up the day before with a high fever and a cough.
State Reps. Gary Scherer, a Circleville Republican, and John Patterson, an Ashtabula County Democrat, also have informed colleagues they have the virus, according to state Rep. John Rogers, a Democrat from Mentor-on-the-Lake. Rogers said he was also getting tested for the coronavirus late Monday afternoon after coming down with a chest cold and sinus infection.
Scherer didn’t return a phone call. Patterson issued a statement saying he got a test Sunday after he came down with chills, fatigue and a cough.
“I share this news of my positive test this afternoon in the hopes that others will now get a test and quarantine out of an abundance of caution. I have consistently practiced social distancing whenever possible and worn a mask. I was wearing a mask on Thursday during my floor speech at the Statehouse for the school funding bill. This virus is serious and we should all treat it as such,” he said.
Carfagna, Scherer, and Patterson were at the Ohio Statehouse last week for House session as well as committee meetings -- including the House finance committee, on which they and 30 other House members sit.
“Similar to the positive case that came to light Friday, this was shared member to member,” House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, an Akron Democrat, wrote in an email to Democratic staff Monday morning, about Scherer’s case, though she didn’t identify him by name. “There continues to be no communication from the Speaker’s office and majority leadership alerting members or staff to the situation or how it is being handled.”
Despite the positive tests, there has been no change in this week’s legislative schedule, according to Taylor Jach, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Bob Cupp.
“Over the last several days, two members of our caucus have received positive test results. It is not believed this is a result of exposure at the Statehouse. They are currently quarantining. Individuals who had close contact with them have been notified,” Jach said.
Sykes responded in a statement saying session should be canceled for this week, as state lawmakers have done in Arizona, for safety reasons.
“At the very least, they could pretend to care about the health, safety and well-being of those who enter the state’s legislative halls and share information with everyone who is affected in a timely manner,” she said.
The state House and Senate are scheduled to meet Tuesday and Wednesday, on top of a scheduled full slate of committee hearings. Under its newly updated workplace guidelines, the Ohio Department of Health recommends employees quarantine for 7 days if they are found to have come in close contact with someone someone with a probable or confirmed case of COVID-19.
The Ohio Senate plans to conduct “business as usual” under the chamber’s COVID-19 policy, according to John Fortney, a spokesman for Senate President Larry Obhof, a Medina Republican.
Meanwhile, Republican legislative leaders in Michigan canceled a scheduled Tuesday voting session after news broke Sunday that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had tested positive for COVID-19, while Arizona lawmakers canceled session for a week for the same reason. Giuliani had visited Republican legislators in both states last week to question the results of the presidential election.
Ohio legislative leaders are planning to take up a slew of consequential bills during the ongoing lame duck session, which runs through the end of the calendar year.
That includes possibly attempting to override a veto from Gov. Mike DeWine stripping the governor’s office of the authority to issue statewide health orders, like the ones DeWine has used this year to impose restrictions on the day-to-day life of Ohioans, including requiring them to wear face masks in most public places. DeWine vetoed the bill last Thursday.
The legislature also is considering numerous other pieces of key legislation, including a bill that would postpone key components House Bill 6, the nuclear bailout bill that’s at the center of a federal corruption probe, a sweeping criminal sentencing reform bill that would downgrade most drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, another sweeping bill that would overhaul the state’s system of funding K-12 public schools, a bill funding the state’s capital-projects budget that’s a DeWine administration priority and a bill that would legalize betting on sports.
House Democrats unsuccessfully have pushed Cupp to require face masks, and to allow witnesses to submit virtual testimony for committee hearings. There are no provisions for state lawmakers to meet virtually. They also have complained that Republicans have failed to promptly share information about positive COVID-19 tests among staff and legislators, forcing them to find out through unofficial channels. Many legislative staffers now are working from home.
Including the three newly sick lawmakers, 10 Ohio lawmakers are now known to have tested positive for the coronavirus – six Republicans and four Democrats.
That includes state Rep. George Lang, who told cleveland.com that he and members of his family tested positive for the virus back in July, as well as State Sen. Tina Maharath of suburban Columbus, State Rep. Stephanie Howse of Cleveland, State Rep. Joe Miller of Amherst, State Sen. Bob Peterson of Fayette County and State Sen. Frank Hoagland of Jefferson County. State Rep. John Becker also recently announced a bout with a “mystery fever” that left him with fatigue, a sore throat and a high fever, among other symptoms.
State Rep. Stephen Hambley, a Brunswick Republican, returned to the Statehouse last week after he tested positive for the coronavirus last month. Hambley said he was exposed to the virus at the Statehouse on Nov. 17 from a staffer, immediately self-isolated when the staffer informed him that he was sick two days later, and started showing symptoms the following day.
DeWine was asked Monday whether the Statehouse is a safe place to visit.
“Any public place you certainly need to wear a mask. That guidance certainly has not changed,” he said.
Note: This story was updated at 6:08 p.m. with the statement from House leadership.