Friday, March 29, 2024

Rudy Giuliani hospitalized with COVID-19, Ingham County mandates quarantine for close contacts

December 7, 2020
Rudy Giuliani gives a speech at the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Giuliani is the former mayor of New York City.
Rudy Giuliani gives a speech at the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Giuliani is the former mayor of New York City. —
Photo by Nic Antaya | and Nic Antaya The State News

Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's lawyer, has been hospitalized with COVID-19 on Sunday, mere days after being in a confined conference room in Lansing for several hours without a mask, the Ingham County Health Department, or ICHD, said in a release.

The ICHD has consulted with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, or MDHHS, on the matter, and state health officials, including Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, concur that given the extremely rapid course of the illness, it is likely that Giuliani was contagious during his testimony.

"People are contagious with COVID-19 two days prior to symptom onset or a positive COVID-19 test if asymptomatic. Giuliani’s hospitalization on Sunday is highly indicative of onset prior to Saturday making Wednesday a likely exposure date," the ICHD said in a release.

This is one of many high-risk scenarios, as many attendees, ICHD Health Officer Linda Vail said, were also unmasked and within 6 feet of the infected individual for 15 or more minutes.

Those who were in attendance must quarantine through at least Dec. 12. Quarantine and monitoring for this incident at the Anderson House Office Building will officially end on Dec. 17.

The standard length of quarantine is 14 days, however, it is now allowable for people to quarantine for 10 days following exposure and to monitor for symptoms and wear masks on days 11-14 as long as they remain symptom-free, the ICHD said in a release.

Neither the ICHD nor MDHHS advises testing to shorten the quarantine period at this time.

Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield released a statement today explaining that multiple representatives have requested time to receive results from recent COVID-19 tests before returning to session, out of an abundance of caution.

Chatfield said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, guidelines would not consider them close contacts with anyone, even if Giuliani had been positive, but they want to go above and beyond in the interest of public safety with the recent spike in COVID cases nationwide.

Additionally, we have several representatives who need to miss the House session scheduled for Tuesday for non-COVID reasons.

Between those two things, Chatfield decided the House will still be in session Tuesday, but no voting will take place and attendance will not be taken. Instead, voting will resume on Wednesday and Thursday.

ICHD Public Information Officer Amanda Darche was not available for comment at the time of publishing.

Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.

Discussion

Share and discuss “Rudy Giuliani hospitalized with COVID-19, Ingham County mandates quarantine for close contacts” on social media.