WASHINGTON – Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Thursday that she tested positive for COVID-19 and would “work at home while following isolation protocols.”
In a series of messages posted to Twitter, Bowser said she took an at-home test Wednesday after developing “cold-like” symptoms. She later confirmed those positive results with a PCR test, which is more precise.
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Bowser, 49, was elected Mayor in 2014 and will be running for a third term later this year. Her older sister Mercia died of COVID-19 complications in February 2021 at the age of 64.
Bowser's positive test comes amid a mini-outbreak in high-level Washington political circles following Saturday night's Gridiron Club dinner. More than a dozen guests who attended the A-list event — including two Cabinet members, journalists and multiple members of Congress — have tested positive this week.
Bowser's office said she did not attend the Gridiron event.
Virus metrics in Washington have crept up in the past month according to the city health department. The weekly case rate per 100,000 residents climbed from 51 at the beginning of March to 110 at the end of March. But that's still far below the weekly case rate of 865 per 100,000 residents reported in the second week of January during the omicron variant surge,
Bowser has lifted most of the District's COVID restrictions, including mask and vaccine mandates in most indoor spaces. Her last public event was a Tuesday evening conference sponsored by Axios.