Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, a Republican who’s campaigning in a high-stakes runoff election that would decide management of the Senate, is isolating “out of an abundance of warning,” a marketing campaign spokesman stated Sunday, after a sequence of coronavirus exams delivered blended messages about whether or not she had contracted the illness. The most recent outcomes confirmed that she had examined detrimental.
Based on Stephen Lawson, a marketing campaign spokesman, a speedy check Ms. Loeffler took Friday morning got here again detrimental, however a second check she additionally took that morning — a polymerase chain response, or P.C.R., check, which is taken into account extra correct — returned a constructive outcome on Friday night.
In between her receipt of the 2 conflicting check outcomes, Ms. Loeffler attended campaign-related occasions on Friday, together with a rally with Vice President Mike Pence and Senator David Perdue of Georgia, Mr. Lawson stated.
Ms. Loeffler, 49, acquired one other P.C.R. check on Saturday morning. Nevertheless it was “inconclusive,” Mr. Lawson stated of the outcomes, which got here in Saturday night. On Sunday afternoon, Mr. Lawson issued one other assertion saying that the senator’s “beforehand inconclusive P.C.R. outcomes have been retested in a single day and the outcomes fortunately got here again detrimental.”
He added: “Out of an abundance of warning, she’s going to proceed to self-isolate and be retested once more to hopefully obtain consecutive detrimental check outcomes. We are going to share these outcomes as they’re made obtainable. She’s going to proceed to discuss with medical consultants and observe C.D.C. pointers.”
Ms. Loeffler has notified these with whom she had sustained contact whereas she awaits additional check outcomes, he stated.
“She has no signs and she’s going to proceed to observe C.D.C. pointers by quarantining till retesting is conclusive, and an replace will probably be offered at the moment,” Mr. Lawson stated.
Ms. Loeffler has held latest occasions with distinguished Republicans, together with Mr. Pence, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Mr. Perdue, who can be engaged in a runoff election that would decide management of the Senate. Mr. Perdue is remaining at dwelling till extra particulars are identified concerning the well being standing of Ms. Loeffler.
“Senator Perdue will stay at dwelling till Senator Loeffler receives affirmation of her check outcomes,” John Burke, a Perdue marketing campaign spokesman, wrote in a textual content message Sunday.
Mr. Perdue, 70, has inspired folks to put on masks to assist cease the unfold of the coronavirus. However he has additionally appeared at rallies the place folks didn’t put on masks. A Friday tweet from Ms. Loeffler features a image that exhibits the 2 senators in an indoor setting with out masks.
A spokesman for Mr. Pence, Devin O’Malley, stated that “as he awaits a confirmatory check from Senator Loeffler, Vice President Pence is in common session with the White Home Medical Unit and will probably be following C.D.C. pointers as he has in different circumstances when he has been an in depth contact.”
The final time Mr. Pence was deemed an in depth contact was final month when his chief of workers, Marc Quick, examined constructive.
Mr. Pence continued to marketing campaign then, with the White Home saying that he was performing “important” duties that exempted him from Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention pointers calling for folks to quarantine for 14 days after publicity to the virus.
Ms. Loeffler, a businesswoman who’s the Senate’s richest member, was quickly appointed to her Senate seat late final yr. She faces the Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, a Democrat, in an election on Jan. 5, when Georgia voters may even determine between Mr. Perdue and his opponent, Jon Ossoff, a Democrat.
