Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tests positive for COVID
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing “mild symptoms.”
The 40-year-old Democratic rising star says he’ll work from home in accordance with Centers for Disease Control guidance until it’s safe for him to return “to the office and the road.”
I have tested positive for COVID-19 and am experiencing mild symptoms. I plan to work remotely while isolating according to CDC guidelines, and look forward to when I can safely return to the office and the road.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) June 6, 2022
Buttigieg visited Michigan for two official events late last week but it’s not clear how he contracted the virus.
There was no immediate word if his husband, Chasten, has also tested positive.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.), who spent time with Buttigieg on his trip, said Monday she was negative.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (NICHOLAS KAMM/)
The couple recently welcomed two cute-as-button babies, Penelope Rose and Joseph August.
Buttigieg, a former mayor of his hometown of South Bend, Indiana, made a trailblazing run for president in 2020 as one of the first LGBTQ people to vie for a major party nomination. He joined the Biden administration as transportation secretary in 2021, becoming the first gay person to win confirmation to serve in a presidential cabinet.
COVID caseloads are still extraordinarily high across the nation as the super-contagious BA.2 variant spreads widely. About 100,000 cases a day are being reported but public health experts believe the real number is far higher because many Americans are now using at-home tests.
Hospitalizations are high and still rising as the new strain is very dangerous to the majority of Americans who have not been fully vaccinated and boosted.
Deaths have stayed relatively low as even two doses of the vaccine or previous infection with another earlier strain appears to protect many from the most serious impacts of the deadly virus.
CORRECTION: On June 6, 2022, the Daily News misstated that Pete Buttigieg was the first LGBTQ person to vie for a major party nomination for the White House. Fred Karger was the first openly gay candidate in the 2012 GOP presidential primaries and appeared on six state ballots including California.
