"I want everyone to know that I am feeling much better,” Diaz-Balart said in a statement on Wednesday, confirming his diagnosis and urging everyone to take the disease “extremely seriously.”

He said he entered self-quarantine on Friday out of abundance of caution and stayed in Washington rather than return to South Florida, because that would put his wife at risk due to her pre-existing conditions. Diaz-Balart developed symptoms on Saturday, including fever and a headache, and was notified on Wednesday that he was indeed infected by the novel coronavirus.

Diaz-Balart is on the record as voting for the Families First Coronavirus Response Act on the House floor late on Friday. An amended version of the bill was adopted in the Senate on Wednesday, allocating billions of dollars to paid sick leave, unemployment benefits and food stamps for Americans affected by the outbreak.

Several other lawmakers have self-quarantined as a precaution since a Covid-19 carrier was reported to have attended the CPAC conference last month, but so far all of their tests have come back negative.

There have been 9,236 confirmed Covid-19 infections in the US so far, and the disease has been reported in every state. More are expected as testing expands. As of Wednesday evening, there have been a total of 150 deaths due to the disease.

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