MassGOP Vice Chairman Tom Mountain Says He Tested Positive For COVID After Attending White House Hanukkah Party
BOSTON (CBS) – Tom Mountain, the vice chair of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee, said he has been battling COVID-19 for several weeks after he attended the White House's Hanukkah event.
"My family tried to discourage me from attending the White House Hanukkah event for fear of my contracting the COVID. I didn't listen, and now over two weeks later I'm still paying the price," Mountain told WBZ-TV in a statement.
Mountain is also the vice chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Jewish Committee.
In an interview with the Boston Globe, Mountain said he took a coronavirus test after he returned home from the December 7 event at the White House and found he was positive. He said he was already starting to show symptoms when he took the test, and by the next morning he was in the emergency room a day after receiving the results.
Mountain told the newspaper that after a day in the emergency room, he was discharged. But his condition worsened a week later and he returned to the hospital December 19.
According to Mountain, the White House event was "largely maskless." He said he can't be certain where he contracted the virus, but told the Globe "Before the party, I was in perfectly good health. Three days later, I was in the hospital with COVID, and it was all downhill from there."
Mountain said his wife, son, daughter-in-law, and mother-in-law have also all tested positive for the virus.