2 NC lawmakers test positive for coronavirus after legislative session, duck hunt

A pair of North Carolina legislators tested positive for coronavirus in recent days following a duck hunting trip they took with other lawmakers from around the state.

Rep. Brian Turner, D-Buncombe, said in a social media post Monday that he'd tested positive and described his symptoms like a bad cold, saying he didn't have a fever and had not lost his sense of taste or smell. He told WRAL News that his nasal swab, which produced the positive test, was taken Saturday.

Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, took a coronavirus test Monday because of cold-like symptoms and got his positive result back Tuesday morning, according to an announcement from Senate leadership. He had no symptoms Tuesday, according to the news release.

Both men attended an annual duck hunting trip for North Carolina lawmakers Friday, though it's unclear how many people were in close contact with either. Rabon also attended the one-day start to this year's General Assembly session last Wednesday in Raleigh. Turner did not.

Both men are isolating and reaching out to people they've had close contact with, according to their respective announcements.

"These are some of the hardest phone calls I have ever had to make," Turner wrote on Facebook. "No one wants to be responsible for exposing someone to a potentially deadly disease."

Turner declined to name names, saying he wanted to protect others' medical privacy. A number of North Carolina lawmakers were at the hunt in Hyde County, based on social media pictures, but those reached by WRAL said they hunted in different teams and didn't have close contact with Turner.

Rabon's announcement came after most of those interviews.

A hunt organizer didn't immediately return a phone message Tuesday morning seeking more information.

"There was a whole group of us duck hunting," Rep. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, said Tuesday morning. "I didn't know (Turner) tested positive, but he was wearing a mask the whole time. ... I don't know anyone more diligent about wearing a mask than Brian Turner."

Rabon was diligent about his mask last week when the General Assembly gathered, keeping it on even when he spoke from the Senate floor, which not all mask wearers do at the statehouse.

Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, was on the duck hunting trip as well, as was Congressman Madison Cawthorn, a western North Carolina Republican elected in November to his first term in the U.S. House. Facebook pictures show them together, and Saine said Turner and Rabon weren't in his group. Cawthorn's office confirmed he attended and said in an email that "at this point there are no concerns related to the Congressman’s health."

Turner said in his Facebook post that he hopes his adherence to health guidelines – summarized as "Wear (a mask), Wait (6 feet apart) and Wash (your hands)" – prevented others from getting sick.

"The 3Ws work, but they work best when everyone does it," Turner said. "My mask protects you, your mask protects me."

A new legislative session, which began last Wednesday with one day of meetings, gets underway in earnest next Wednesday, and though many meetings include a virtual option, lawmakers will gather in large numbers at the Legislative Building in downtown Raleigh.

The coronavirus can transmit from people who aren't showing symptoms, and it takes anywhere from two to 14 days for symptoms to show, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.