Secrecy on legislator's COVID-19 illness roils a statehouse

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A bitter partisan fight over a Pennsylvania lawmaker's decision to wait a week before disclosing his COVID-19 diagnosis spread to the House floor Thursday, and the state attorney general declined to investigate.

A day after Republican Rep. Andrew Lewis' announcement through a news release that he had self-isolated and recovered from the illness that has killed at least 100,000 people in the U.S., Democrats expressed anger and demanded changes that would require masks on the floor and in committee meetings.

The Legislature has continued to meet during the pandemic under rules that permit lawmakers to vote from home or from their Capitol offices, or to vote in person. Lewis, from a Harrisburg-area district, said he was tested two weeks ago, learned the results last week and stayed quiet out of respect for others in his circle.

Rep. Brian Sims, a Philadelphia Democrat who put an emotional video on social media after Lewis made his announcement, said in floor remarks Thursday that the decision to keep the positive test a secret put others at risk.

Sims discounted House Republicans' response, which has led at least two members to self-isolate because they sit near Lewis in the chamber.

“To pretend that a member here coming to session only interacts with one, two, three people, that’s ridiculous, we all know better,” Sims said.

Sims said House Speaker Mike Turzai, a Republican from north of Pittsburgh, should resign.

Turzai said that he had been unaware of Lewis' diagnosis and that as for himself, he would disclose if he became infected.

“We are not using this facility to make those kind of statements,” Turzai said, scolding Sims for calling him by his first and last names only. “My title is speaker.”

Rep. Rob Matzie, a Democrat also...