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Idaho legislature pauses for two weeks amid Covid-19 outbreak among lawmakers

Democratic lawmakers blame GOP colleagues for not preventing virus spread

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Saturday 20 March 2021 18:39 GMT
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The Idaho legislature has paused all business until next month due to a Covid outbreak among lawmakers and staff at the Capitol.

The state’s House and Senate voted to break until 6 April in an attempt to “break the cycle” of infections, according to House Speaker Scott Bedke.

As of Friday there were ten confirmed cases of Covid among House representatives and staff and Senate staff, according to the House Democratic leader’s office.

The break in business comes as lawmakers were considering a bill to curb the governor’s emergency powers, and another one that would ban local governments from mandating mask-wearing.

Democratic lawmakers have blamed Republicans in the state for not taking the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.

“We could have met remotely or worn masks and distanced reliably but no, we go home now and stop doing the peoples business,” tweeted Democratic state Senator David Nelson.

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And in a tweet the Idaho Democratic Party added that “recessing won’t stop the spread. Masks will.”

“We can’t help but be disappointed in how bad things have become at the Capitol, when we could’ve prevented this from becoming a hot spot all along,” House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel and Senate Minority Leader Michelle Stennett said in a joint statement.

And they warned their colleagues that they “must do better when we return, or else we’ll keep finding ourselves in this position.”

Idaho has seen a 25 per cent increase in new daily Covid cases over the past two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins University.

More than 177,000 people have tested positive for the virus in Idaho and there have been 1,941 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

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