Rep. Jahana Hayes on Thursday said the coronavirus pandemic “hit home’ as her husband, Milford Hayes, a Waterbury police officer, tested positive for COVID-19 at his workplace. She is in quarantine.
“I am incredibly grateful that at this time he seems to be healthy and asymptomatic,” Hayes said.”Out of an abundance of caution, and in keeping in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, my family and I will be quarantining at home for the next 14 days and self-monitoring for symptoms”
Hayes, D-5th District, said she would continue to work remotely. “Given my exposure, I was also tested and it was thankfully negative,” Hayes said.
The U.S. House was scheduled to return to work in Washington D.C. next week, but that decision was reversed earlier this week amid an uproar from House lawmakers. The Senate, however, has not changed its plans to return to work on May 4.
“While some are clamoring to return to Washington to conduct in-person business, this test result in my own family has reinforced that we still have a ways to go – and there is still real danger in a premature return to regular order for Congress and the country, without appropriate precautions,” Hayes said. “This test result highlights that COVID-19 does not discriminate and presents in many forms – it has and will touch every family in some way.”
Hayes also said her husband’s case “underscores that workers who have been deemed ‘essential’” — whether they are keeping our streets safe, stocking grocery shelves, or producing the food to feed us –- are inherently at a greater risk of contracting this deadly virus. Every day I am in awe of the courage of these Americans – who are doing their part to help their neighbors.”
Several House members and U.S. senators have fallen ill from the virus, and the brother of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has died of COVID-19.