The stretch run for West Virginia’s legislative session starts with a new complication, the diagnosis of a delegate with covid-19.
Delegate Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, confirmed his covid case on Sunday and will be quarantining for at least a week. He is the chairman of the House Government Organization Committee.
Effects of his covid case were already starting to be apparent today, the 41st day of the 60-day session.
At least two lawmakers announced they would be isolating as a precaution because of their proximity to Steele last week. Some staff from the Government Organization Committee will be staying home, with other staff substituting in. And covid testing availability will be increased at the Capitol.
Democratic lawmakers plan to discuss the covid situation at the Capitol during a weekly briefing with media today.
One of the lawmakers isolating is Senator Patrick Martin, R-Lewis.
“On Thursday, I spent time with Delegate Brandon Steele, who we since have learned has tested positive with COVID-19” Martin wrote on social media. “Out of an abundance of caution and concern for fellow members and employees of the Senate, I have decided to voluntarily quarantine at my home until I can be tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday. At this time, I am experiencing no symptoms and I feel good.”
Another is Delegate Joshua Higginbotham, R-Putnam. Higginbotham, the vice chairman of the House Education Committee, sits right in front of Steele during floor sessions.
“My friend & colleague, Brandon Steele, tested positive for COVID-19. He & I sit next to each other often times for hours every day. I am fine at the moment, but I will be voluntarily self-quarantining until I get tested as a way of protecting our staff & other elected officials at the Capitol. I’ll be working remotely for the time being.”
Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, on Sunday said the House would take additional precautions but did not intend to grind to a halt.
The next major legislative deadline is Crossover Day, which is the last opportunity for each chamber to pass its own bills out to the other. Delegate Geoff Foster, R-Putnam, is vice chairman of the Government Organization Committee and plans to lead it this week.
“The plan is to carry on as best we can, and the vice chairman of Government Organization will run the committee,” Summers said in a telephone interview. “Some staff members will be absent because we are asking them to quarantine for seven days because they have the highest possibility of having a high-risk exposure.
“So we will be managing with other staff as necessary, and we are talking about implementing, through Teams, the ability for some staff members to participate remotely.”
Delegates had the option to be vaccinated before the session even began, but not all chose to be. Some close observers suggested the number that opted in for vaccination was about 70 percent. Some legislators and staff were just receiving their second dose last week. Steele acknowledged on Sunday that he was among those unvaccinated.
“Some have, some have not,” Summers said. “Those people who have been vaccinated will not have to quarantine if they’ve completed the full two-doses and the 14 days after the second dose.”
The House of Delegates has set up rules that were meant to be precautions during the session, but treatment of them has loosened up as the session has gone on without any covid issues so far.
Delegates are supposed to wear facial coverings during floor sessions, where 100 delegates gather in close quarters, sometimes for hours at a time. But some delegates have worn mesh facemasks and others have worn no facial covering at all, citing a rule that says they don’t have to if they are eating or drinking. Many delegates make a practice of removing their facial coverings when they rise to speak so they can be heard more clearly.
Committee meetings have been in the House Chamber or in the Government Organization Committee room, which is the largest. That practice has loosened up a bit in the past week, with the Judiciary Committee moving back to its more confined regular space.
“We’ve had a good process in place since the beginning,” Summers said. “We have been sanitizing constantly between meetings, and we did that on Saturday. So when the delegate notified me on Saturday we made sure that we cleaned all areas of the House that we felt like there could have been exposure. We just wanted to be more cautious and verify that had been done and done thoroughly.
“We notified all the people that could have a potential high-risk exposure. We recommended they get tested. And the people who needed to quarantine, they are going to participate in that.”
Steele described feeling like seasonal allergies were setting in late last week. He spoke emotionally and for an extended period of time on the House floor Friday in a long debate about historic monuments. When a feeling of extreme fatigue hit Friday evening, he got a covid-19 test. On Saturday, he said, he called House leadership and made about 30 to 40 phone calls to notify others.
Summers said the delegate had been asked to make a list of people he’d been around for 15 minutes or so.
“Delegate Steele has made a list and notified people that he had contact with for more than 15 minutes at a close distance, things the CDC has put forward as being a high-risk exposure, and he has touched base with those people,” Summers said. “He goes home every night, you know, to Raleigh County. So the Raleigh County health department will work with the Kanawha health department for contact tracing.”
Testing with increased capability will be offered at the Capitol beginning today, with drive-through options available and more details about testing to be shared as soon as they are available, Summers said.
“We are going to offer increased testing capability this week on the Capitol grounds for anyone who has a concern, or you know how when sometimes you hear someone has covid in a building some people do become fearful, so we’re going to have testing available inside the Capitol,” Summers said. “And for people who have been exposed to Delegate Steele at the Capitol, we’ll have an outside drive-through capability as well so they don’t have to come into the building.”
Summers said the pace of the session was planned for the possibility that it could be affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
“We knew we had the possibility of having an outbreak during a pandemic. So you know how we were very aggressive in the beginning,” Summers said. “We worked very hard to get a lot of our priority bills across the finish line, so we actually are in good position.”