The Pinal County sheriff says he tested positive for COVID-19 before meeting with President Trump.
Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb announced on Wednesday afternoon that he tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
Lamb posted on the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page that he had been invited on Tuesday to join President Donald Trump at the White House and was tested before the meeting as part of the protocol.
“Unfortunately, as a law enforcement official and elected leader, we do not have the luxury of staying home,” Lamb wrote. “This line of work is inherently dangerous, and that is a risk we take when we sign up for the job. Today, that risk is the COVID-19 virus.”
Lamb said he believes he came into contact with an infected person during a campaign event he held on Saturday. Lamb didn’t say if he wore a mask or practiced social distancing at the event.
“While still asymptomatic, I tested positive for the COVID-19,” Lamb wrote. “I will be self-quarantining for the next 14 days minimum. I alerted the Pinal County Public Health Dept. immediately after my positive test, and they are working to track all those I came in contact with following the Saturday event.”
In early May, Lamb made waves when he said he wouldn’t enforce Gov. Doug Ducey’s stay-at-home order in part because he thought it was unconstitutional. At the time, Lamb said he also thought, as a policy measure, the steps to slow the virus’s spread had gone on long enough.
“The numbers don’t justify the actions anymore,” he said in early May. “Three hundred deaths is not a significant enough number to continue to ruin the economy.”
The Pinal County Sheriff ’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.