A tweet posted on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s official Twitter account confirmed that she had tested positive for COVID-19.
Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has been vaccinated and received a booster shot. She says she is experiencing mild symptoms.
Warren was on the Senate floor last week before the chamber went on recess, CNN reported.
“I regularly test for COVID & while I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive with a breakthrough case. Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated & boosted,” she tweeted. “As cases increase across the country, I urge everyone who has not already done so to get the vaccine and the booster as soon as possible – together, we can save lives.”
Warren’s announcement follows the recent emergence of the Omicron variant that has thrust the nation — and now the White House. It leaves again an uncertain pandemic reality that posts both public health and political challenges.
The country faces a resurgent of the coronavirus that has lingered into its third year.
John Hopkins University reported that the country was averaging 126,967 new cases a day as of Saturday. The data shows that is a significant increase from an average of just more than 70,000 new cases per day at the beginning of last month.
“The country is likely in for a hard winter as the new variant strains a health care system already battered by the Delta variant,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.
“It’s going to take over,” Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said of the Omicron variant on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, urging Americans to get vaccinated and get their booster shots. “And be prudent in everything else you do: When you travel in your indoor settings that are congregated, wear a mask.”
The World Health Organization reported that Omicron cases doubled every 1.5 to 3 days with documented spread. It’s expected to become the “dominant strain” in weeks approaching, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said Friday.
