JACKSON, Miss. (AP)– Loaded elevators and congested committee rooms.
Those were common scenes at the Mississippi Capitol in June– a month that saw a historic vote to remove the Confederate symbol from the state flag– and now a minimum of 26 lawmakers have actually been identified with the coronavirus in the greatest recognized outbreak in any state legislature in the country.
That works out to about 1 in 7 Mississippi lawmakers.
Amongst those checking positive in the heavily Republican body are the GOP presiding officers, Home Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann.
None of the lawmakers has actually been hospitalized, according to state officials.
President Donald Trump has actually resisted wearing a mask, and numerous other Republicans around the country have cast face coverings and social distancing as a violation on their flexibility.
However around the Mississippi Capitol, not wearing a mask– or using one pushed listed below the chin– was a bipartisan activity in current weeks. At the exact same time, lots of other legislators from both celebrations covered their faces and took other precautions.
Mississippi has actually seen a fast increase in confirmed cases in the past two weeks, with the total hitting nearly 33,600 by Wednesday, incl