Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz spent a night in a Walmart parking lot after he was told that he interacted with someone infected with the coronavirus.
Gaetz learned he had taken a photograph with someone who was later determined to have the virus while he was aboard Air Force One with the president Monday, the Pensacola News Journal reported.
Upon reading the message from his chief of staff, Gaetz said he needed to be isolated immediately. He spent the rest of the flight to Washington, D.C., in an unoccupied office.
Gaetz was taken via government vehicle to an undisclosed government location for coronavirus testing once Air Force One landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
The Florida lawmaker left Washington in a private vehicle late Monday.
“I couldn’t stay in a hotel,” he said. “I slept in a Walmart parking lot somewhere off [Interstate] 85.”
Gaetz, who is back in Florida, learned Tuesday he tested negative for the virus. He said he would still self-quarantine through Thursday out of “an abundance of caution.”
