TWO MORE state lawmakers test positive for virus.
5 infected lawmakers show need for care, governor says
Two more state lawmakers said Wednesday that they tested positive for covid-19, increasing to five the number of lawmakers who learned they had the disease over the past several days.
Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, and Rep. Joe Cloud, R-Russellville, said they don’t know how they became infected.
Irvin, chairwoman of the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, said in a text message to this newspaper that she believes that she was at legislative meetings every day last week.
She said she also works at her husband’s medical clinic, but “I didn’t get this from the clinic — I am certain of that.
“We have very few cases here,” Irvin said.
The positive tests of three other lawmakers led legislative leaders on Tuesday afternoon to suspend their
budget hearings for state agencies for the rest of this week. The legislative leaders have indicated they plan to resume the hearings next week.
The three lawmakers are Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, and Reps. Michelle Gray, R-Melbourne, and Stu Smith, R-Batesville. They said Tuesday that they aren’t sure how they became infected.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he’s not surprised that some lawmakers have tested positive.
“It’s not a surprise, because our legislators are part time, they go back to their community, they go to the grocery store, they try to, you know, do all kinds of activities,” the Republican governor said at a virtual town hall event hosted by the American Democracy Project at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.
“And so it’s potential for anybody to contract the virus, even when you’re careful,” Hutchinson said. In addition to the lawmakers, the state budget director, Jake Bleed, and Department of Corrections Secretary Solomon Graves said Tuesday that they have tested positive for coronavirus.
Hutchinson said he hopes the lawmakers recover quickly.
IRVIN’S ILLNESS
Irvin, 49, said in a telephone interview that she learned Wednesday morning that she tested positive.
She said she started feeling sick Saturday night, but tested negative through a rapid antigen test on Sunday.
Irvin said she also had the more reliable polymerase chain reaction test Sunday and learned about her positive test result on Wednesday morning.
“The rapid tests aren’t always 100% correct,”she said.
Irvin said she didn’t attend legislative meetings in Little Rock this week because she wasn’t feeling good.
“I am still feeling sick,” she said, but “I feel better today.
“I started medicine this morning,” Irvin said.
She said she expects to quarantine for 14 days, and she appreciates the people who have reached out to her with prayers and concerns.
CLOUD’S ILLNESS
Cloud, 66, who is a retired doctor, said he attended budget hearings for three days last week.
He said he tested positive through a rapid antigen test Sunday and he learned Tuesday morning that he had tested positive in a PCR test administered Monday.
“I have had fever on and off,” he said in a telephone interviews. “It kind of wanes on and off.”
Cloud said he’s got a cough and he feels fatigue and malaise and is quarantining himself.
“I had an outpouring of well wishes and I certainly appreciate that,” he said.
OTHERS’ REACTION
House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, tweeted Wednesday about Cloud reporting a positive coronavirus test to him.
“I continue to pray for a speedy recovery of our members and all Arkansans affected by this virus,” Shepherd said.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, said Wednesday, “We are going to do everything we can to hold legislative meetings next week,” but also “take steps to “control this from getting out of hand.”
During their budget hearings for states agencies, lawmakers are surrounded by plastic-glass barriers in the Multi-Agency Complex west of the state Capitol. They’ve voted to require lawmakers at those hearings to wear masks, except under certain conditions, and allow certain lawmakers to vote by proxy. The budget hearings started Oct. 13 and are scheduled to end Nov. 12.
In the regular session starting Jan. 11, the Legislature and the governor will consider a a wide range of matters, including enacting a general revenue budget for fiscal 2022, which starts July 1, 2021.
Before the fiscal session started on April 8, Reps. Vivian Flowers, D-Pine Bluff; Reginald Murdock, D-Marianna; and Les Warren, R-Hot Springs, announced they had tested positive for the coronavirus. Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, announced in July that he tested positive. All have recovered.
In the town-hall event, Hutchinson addressed what he referred to as the “big question” about work in the state Capitol.
“Just like education is essential, carrying on the responsibilities of government is essential,” he said.
Hutchinson noted some procedural changes, such as allowing lawmakers to vote by proxy, and emphasized the importance of meeting in January.
“We’re going to have a legislative session next January. And guess what? I think the virus will still be here next January,” Hutchinson said. “And so the legislators are gonna be down here every day. Constitutionally, that’s their responsibility. I don’t think they should cancel it, I think they should manage through it. And be very, very careful and take the precautions that are needed.”
Both the House of Representatives and Senate plan to install plastic-glass cubicles around lawmakers in their chambers.
Both chambers have designated three larger meeting rooms apiece for holding committee meetings during the session and plan to have other rooms called “bullpens” for people waiting to testify at the meetings and for others to watch the committee proceedings.