Dr. Anthony Fauci will not in person attend the Senate hearing regarding the Trump administration's COVID-19 response, but will testify by video conference, according to panel chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander in a statement.
"After consulting with Dr. Fauci, and in an abundance of caution for our witnesses, senators, and the staff, all four Administration witnesses will appear by videoconference due to these unusual circumstances," Alexander said in a statement.
Fauci will join other White House Task Force members, who have self-quarantined after they came into contact with staffers who had tested positive for COVID-19. Among other witnesses set to testify are Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
The hearing is set to take place on 12 May and will provide the Senators with an "opportunity to hear an update about what federal, state and local governments are doing to help Americans go back to work and back to school as rapidly and safely as possible", according to a committee release.
Fauci has switched to "modified quarantine" after his potential exposure to a person who had tested positive for COVID-19, as did his fellow Coronavirus Task Force Members as the number of confirmed cases in the US has topped 1,329,000 with a death toll over 79,000, as displayed in data collected and published by Johns Hopkins University.