Amy Klobuchar announces her husband has coronavirus

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota announced on Monday that her husband has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

“I have news that many Americans are facing right now: my husband John has the coronavirus. We just got the test results at 7 a.m. this morning,” Klobuchar said in a statement.

The Democratic senator and former 2020 presidential candidate said that her husband has been “cut off from all visitors” and that she will also not see him during this time, but that she and her daughter “are constantly calling and texting and emailing.”

“We love him very much and pray for his recovery. He is exhausted and sick but a very strong and resilient person,” she wrote. Her husband was admitted to a Virginia hospital, she wrote, and now has pneumonia “and is on oxygen, but not a ventilator.”

Klobuchar said that she and her husband have not been in the same place over the last two weeks and because “I am outside the 14-day period for getting sick, my doctor has advised me not to get a test.”

” As everyone is aware, there are test shortages for people who need them everywhere and I don’t qualify to get one under any standard,” she wrote.

The senator said that “not being able to be there at the hospital by his side is one of the hardest things about this disease.”

The news comes a day after Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky became the first US senator to test positive for the novel coronavirus, a development that prompted two other Republican senators — Mike Lee and Mitt Romney — to self-quarantine as a precautionary measure.

As lawmakers on Capitol Hill grapple with how to contain the spread of Covid-19 across the United States, at least 31 members of Congress have announced steps to self-quarantine or otherwise isolate themselves as a precaution after either coming into direct contact or potentially coming into contact with an infected individual.

It also comes as senators are working to negotiate a bipartisan deal on a massive economic stimulus package to deliver relief amid the coronavirus crisis. So far, a bipartisan deal has not yet been reached, but a procedural vote to move forward with the stimulus is set for later this afternoon.