Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said Sunday he would quarantine after testing positive for Covid, making him the fourth Senator and the third Democrat to go on medical leave from the tightly-split Senate chamber.
Among his fellow Democrats, 89-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California is recovering at home after having been discharged from the hospital with shingles earlier this month. Meanwhile 53-year-old Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania remains in the hospital after checking himself in to treat clinical depression in mid-February.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is in rehabilitation after being discharged from the hospital last week. He’d suffered a concussion when he tripped and fell during dinner at a restaurant in DC.
Durbin said in a tweet that he would follow all CDC guidelines, which call for quarantining for at least five days.
“Thankfully, I am fully vaccinated and boosted and only experiencing minor symptoms,” the 78-year-old Durbin said.
His absence further throws off the balance of the initially razor- thin 51-49 Democratic-Republican split in the Senate. With three Democrats and one Republican missing, it’s a 48-48 split when all remaining Senators are present, likely forcing Vice President Harris to have to break any tied votes—as she’s already had to do numerous times in the past several weeks.
