U.S lawmaker, Pramila Jayapal

Pramila Jayapal, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

According to her, she contracted the virus after being locked down in the same room with a number of Republican lawmakers who refused to wear masks during the unrest in the Capitol last week.

“I just received a positive COVID-19 test result after being locked down in a secured room at the Capitol where several Republicans not only cruelly refused to wear a mask but recklessly mocked colleagues and staff who offered them one,” Jayapal said in a post on her official Twitter account.

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Earlier on Monday, U.S. Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman said she also contracted COVID-19 following possible exposure during the lockdown in the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Jayapal, who is a member of the Democratic Party, accused the Republican lawmakers of causing a COVID-19 superspreader event and called for punishment against them.

“Any member who refuses to wear a mask should be fully held accountable for endangering our lives because of their selfish idiocy.

“I’m calling for every single member who refuses to wear a mask in the Capitol to be fined and removed from the floor by the Sergeant at Arms,” she said in a post on Twitter.

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It is unclear if the two congresswomen were in the same room during the lockdown in the Capitol.

Jayapal decried U.S. President Donald Trump’s failure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. and vowed to do everything in her power to remove him from office.

Sputnik/NAN