Peter Wells in New York
Missouri governor Mike Parson and his wife both tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday.
Mr Parson’s wife Theresa had been showing cold-like symptoms and took a test earlier today, which came back positive for Covid-19. The governor subsequently took a test, which also yielded a preliminary positive result.
Mr Parson, a Republican, will now wait for official confirmation of the test, but said in a video message on Twitter he felt “fine” and was not showing any symptoms. He and his wife, who also said she felt “fine” will undertake the necessary procedures and quarantine separately from each other.
Missouri’s health department on Wednesday revealed 1,580 people in the state tested positive for Covid-19 over the past 24 hours and attributed a further 83 deaths to the disease. That took the statewide case tally to 116,946 and the overall death toll to 1,947.
Over the past seven days, Missouri has averaged 1,480 cases a day. Earlier this week, its rolling seven-day average of cases was about 30 shy of a peak rate of 1,591 a day in late July. On a per population basis, Missouri has averaged about 23 new cases a day per 100,000 people, which is the ninth highest rate in the US, according to a Financial Times analysis of Covid Tracking Project data.
While several high-profile officials through various levels of local, state and federal government in the US have tested positive, only one governor is known to have tested positive for the disease. Mike Stitt, Oklahoma’s Republican governor, revealed he had coronavirus in mid-July.
Ohio governor Mike DeWine had a close call in early August. The Republican governor was forced to cancel a planned meeting in Cleveland with Donald Trump after testing positive for Covid-19 just hours before the president’s visit. A follow-up test for Mr DeWine came back negative, though.
Atlanta mayor Keisha Bottoms, a Democrat, revealed in early July she had tested positive for coronavirus.