The state Senate, which has been operating with some of its members in and out with covid-19, now has more senators participating remotely because of confirmed cases.
The latest are Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Trump, R-Morgan, and Senator Robert Plymale, D-Wayne. Both were participating in Senate committee meetings via remote technology this afternoon.
Trump, R-Morgan, has been out this week while recovering from covid-19. Trump, in a text to MetroNews, described his symptoms as mild.
“I’m feeling fine now,” he said in the text. “My symptoms were mild, little more than a head cold really, with a little cough that is now gone.”
Trump said he is finishing quarantine and expects to be back in action soon. He credited vaccination and a booster with suppressing the effects of the virus.
The Senate’s communications director, Jacque Bland, said the Judiciary Committee will continue as normal with the vice chairman, Senator Ryan Weld, running the meetings. A Judiciary meeting was canceled earlier this week, but Bland said that was for a different reason from Trump’s absence.
Plymale was off site today too. His symptoms were described as relatively mild, and he took a test out of caution.
“Feeling fine,” Plymale said in a text this afternoon. “I have vaccinated and taken the booster.”
Legislative business is running largely with optional precautions this year after mask rules and social distancing rules last year. The Senate did adopt a rule on the floor this week — Senate Resolution 10 — that provided for a special rule for meeting and voting for covid.
Much of it allows for proxy votes for members who are absent and recovering.
The Senate has had at least two other covid-related absences since the regular legislative session started last week.
Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, was absent last week with a case of covid-19 but has now returned. Senate Education Chairwoman Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, was away because of covid-19 in her family. Rucker is expected to return to the Senate this week.
Active covid-19 cases have continued to be at heightened levels in West Virginia. State figures show 15,906 active covid-19 cases in West Virginia today. The state is running a 22.67 positivity rate, meaning one of every four or five people who is tested comes back positive.
Gov. Jim Justice returned this week from a covid-19 case that he described as making him feel “extremely unwell.”
“I could never encourage people more to get vaccinated,” Justice said late last week. “For crying out loud, if I hadn’t been vaccinated, I’d have been in really, really bad shape.”