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Second US Congresswoman Tests Positive for COVID-19 After Capitol Unrest

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Pramila Jayapal, a member of the US House of Representatives, said on Monday that she contracted COVID-19 after being locked down in the same room with a number of Republican lawmakers who refused to wear masks during the unrest in the Capitol last week.
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"I just received a positive COVID-19 test result after being locked down in a secured room at the Capitol where several Republicans not only cruelly refused to wear a mask but recklessly mocked colleagues and staff who offered them one," Jayapal said in a post on her official Twitter account.

Jayapal, who is a member of the Democratic Party, accused the Republican lawmakers of causing a COVID-19 superspreader event and called for punishment against them.

"Any Member who refuses to wear a mask should be fully held accountable for endangering our lives because of their selfish idiocy. I'm calling for every single Member who refuses to wear a mask in the Capitol to be fined and removed from the floor by the Sergeant at Arms," she said in a post on Twitter.

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Earlier on Monday, US Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman said she also contracted COVID-19 following possible exposure during the lockdown in the Capitol on 6 January.

It is unclear if the two congresswomen were in the same room during the lockdown in the Capitol.

Jayapal decried US President Donald Trump’s failure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and vowed to do everything in her power to remove him from office.

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