Utah state Senate President Stuart Adams (R) tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, then proceeded to tell everyone he tested negative and work without a mask anyway, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Adams opened the Senate session mask-free on Tuesday morning with an announcement that he had tested positive twice since the day before, then the GOP lawmaker immediately took it back and claimed that “I tested negative twice.” Adams didn’t wear a mask during the Senate session that day.
It wasn’t until after the Salt Lake Tribune asked about Adams’ test results and filed a records request that the Senate staff admitted the lawmaker had actually tested positive twice on Tuesday morning.
Senate Chief of Staff Mark Thomas claimed to the Tribune that Adams had tested negative on Monday, then positive on Tuesday, then he took a second test that day and mistakenly thought it came out negative. Adams didn’t know it was actually positive until later, according to Thomas, and the senator really believed at the time of his announcement that he’d had two negative tests.
As the Tribune points out, though, Adams still didn’t say anything about the positive test he got before his remarks on Tuesday morning.
Senate deputy chief of staff Aundrea Peterson told the Tribune that Adams took the tests and “got mixed results,” which “may have caused confusion.”
“It’s not uncommon to test positive days after contracting COVID-19, and according to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], a positive test after recently recovering from COVID-19 does not mean the individual is contagious,” she said.
