Utah Senate President Stuart Adams Opened Session Unmasked After COVID Diagnosis, Report Says

Utah Senate President Stuart Adams tested positive for COVID-19 before opening the session unmasked Tuesday—and falsely telling lawmakers he’d tested negative for the virus, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Adams first tested positive for the virus last Thursday, and he did reportedly quarantine for the recommended five days before his return Tuesday. When he met with lawmakers at that time, he said he had tested positive for the virus twice in the hours before the session, but he played the comment off as a joke before reassuring, “I tested negative twice.” Senate Chief of Staff Mark Thomas later told the Tribune that Adams had tested negative Monday, and had received another test result Tuesday that he believed at the time to be negative. That test was taken Tuesday after Adams tested positive earlier that morning. According to Thomas, the line indicting a positive result was very faint at first, and Adams only learned of the positive result after the session. “President Adams took COVID-19 tests and had mixed results, which may have caused confusion,” Senate Deputy Chief of Staff Aundrea Peterson was quoted saying of the ordeal.