Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), the newly-tapped White House Chief of Staff, disclosed on Monday that he is placing himself under a quarantine after learning that he might have been exposed to the patient who had the Wuhan Virus at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC).
"Rep. Meadows was advised this weekend that he may have come in contact with the CPAC attendee who tested positive for COVID-19, now 12 days ago. Out of an abundance of caution, Meadows received testing which came back negative," Ben Williamson, Meadows' Chief of Staff and Communications Director, said in a statement. "While he's experiencing zero symptoms, under doctors' standard precautionary recommendations, he'll remain at home until the 14 day period expires this Wednesday."
Sen. Ted Cruz (TX), as well as Reps. Paul Gosar (AZ) and Matt Gaetz (FL), have also announced their plans to self-quarantine out an abundance of caution.
The American Conservative Union (ACU), the hosts of the annual CPAC conference, on Saturday notified attendees about one person coming up positive for the Wuhan Virus.
The organization provided an update on Sunday. ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp made it abundantly clear that the attendee was not at the conference on Saturday and was not in close proximity to President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence.
According to Schlapp, hand sanitizing stations were found throughout the conference and it was evident most attendees were cognizant about "scrubbing down all the time because they were at a very big public event."
"And I can tell you, when the president was on site at CPAC, he lives by what he tells us," Schlapp explained. "Because I saw him scrub down his hands and clean his hands."
ACU plans to share any new developments with attendees as they learn more.
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) self-quarantined, but that is not the case.