State Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, who is also a critical care physician, says he has a case of covid-19.
“I’m currently quarantining at home, and like most, my symptoms are mild, tolerable and I’m looking forward to a speedy recovery,” Takubo, R-Kanawha, wrote today on his Facebook page.
Dozens of people commented on his post to wish Takubo well.
Takubo said public concern should focus on other essential workers.
“Let’s all continue to keep of our healthcare and front line workers as well as our afflicted friends and family in our prayers for their continued safety, quick recoveries, and end to this pandemic,” Takubo wrote.
Takubo is the co-owner and founder of Pulmonary Associates Of Charleston. He was elected to the Senate in 2014, was re-elected in 2018 and became the majority leader that year.
Takubo is the second West Virginia legislator to publicly acknowledge a case of coronavirus.
In August, Delegate Margaret Staggers, D-Fayette, publicly posted on her Facebook page this week that she developed a strange cough and got a rapid test because she was supposed to go to work.
“I have the Corona virus,” she wrote on social media.
Like Takubo, Staggers works in a medical field.
Staggers is an emergency room physician at Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital, which is one reason she had particular concern. The hospital was affected by community spread in the area.
Besides her emergency room job, Staggers is also medical director of several emergency medical services and emergency operations centers in Fayette, Wyoming, Raleigh and Boone counties.
On Sept. 10, Staggers wrote that she is feeling better.
“Now you not only know someone who had a “mild” case (didn’t need hospitalization) but you know someone recovered,” Staggers wrote.
She continued, “my prayers go out for those in the process of fighting this , for the strength and inner resources to win.”