Sununu feeling poorly, but negative for COVID
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has tested negative for COVID-19 after reporting virus-like symptoms that led him to isolate himself Wednesday.
According to a statement from the Republican governor, Sununu woke up with “symptoms similar to COVID” Wednesday morning. He postponed an Executive Council meeting and his office sent out a statement that he was “not feeling well this morning” and would get a COVID test.
Sununu’s office posted the full statement to Twitter at 7:39 a.m.
The governor, who is fully vaccinated, received two negative test results from rapid antigen tests. He followed up with a PCR test, which confirmed the negative result.
All of the testing was “out of an abundance of caution,” according to the governor’s office.
In a statement, the governor thanked Granite Staters for “all the well wishes” and said, “I am going to rest up, and look forward to getting back to the State House soon.”
Some other governors did not fare as well as Sununu, despite receiving jabs. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tested positive for COVID-19 in mid-August, just hours after speaking at a GOP event in his home state. Abbott described his infection as “brief and mild” and attributed that to being fully vaccinated.
In April, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte tested positive for the virus just days after receiving his first dose of the vaccine.
Gov. Sununu visited healthcare officials in Kentucky — one of the states recently hit hardest by the delta variant of the virus — just days before his heath scare. On the day of Sununu’s visit, Kentucky reported 7,741 new cases.
New Hampshire does not have any mask mandates in place.
The Granite State has 2,864 active cases, with 121 people hospitalized. More than 800,000 residents, 59% of the state’s population, have received at least one dose of
vaccination. About 54% of the population is fully vaccinated.
The state announced an average of 281 daily cases in August, but that number jumped 20% over the last seven days to an average of 326 cases per day.
Earlier this summer Sununu signed the “medical freedom” law which prohibits vaccine mandates in New Hampshire.
According to the law, “No person may be compelled to receive an immunization for COVID-19 in order to secure, receive, or access any public facility, any public benefit, or any public service from the state of New Hampshire, or any political subdivision thereof, including but not limited to counties, cities, towns, precincts, water districts, school districts, schools, or quasi-public entities.”
Federal health officials are preparing to roll out booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine later this month, which will be recommended for fully vaccinated people eight months after their initial vaccination.