A Republican politician who made a habit of walking around Congress without a mask tested positive for the coronavirus as he prepared to leave for his native Texas with President Donald Trump.
Louie Gohmert announced his diagnosis on Wednesday after attending a major hearing featuring testimony from Attorney General Bill Barr, with whom he was seen walking and chatting at a close distance while neither wore a mask.
The news angered House Democrats and prompted Speaker Nancy Pelosi to order the wearing of masks on the chamber floor - with punishment of removal for anyone disobeying.
Mr Gohmert, 66, said he was asymptomatic and downplayed his diagnosis.
President Donald Trump is now telling Americans to wear a mask after resisting wearing one. Source: AAP
He has worn a mask sporadically in recent weeks, and suggested Wednesday that moving it around on his face because it is uncomfortable "puts some germs in the mask" and maybe this caused his infection.
"A lot of people have made a big deal out of my not wearing a mask a whole lot, but in the last week or two I have worn a mask more than I have in the whole last four months," Mr Gohmert told the KETK television network.
"I can't help but wonder if by keeping a mask on and keeping it in place, that if I might've put some germs, some of the virus, on to the mask and breathed it in. I don't know."
Infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, a leading member of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force, has previously said the United States was headed in the "wrong direction" on the pandemic and demanded that Americans wear masks and avoid crowds after lax behaviour propelled new outbreaks
Even as the pandemic has raged in the US, President Trump steadfastly ignored recommendations from US medical experts that people wear masks to help curb the spread of the virus and he did not wear one in public until 11 July.
Since then, Republican politicians who shunned masks have begun to wear them more regularly. But to wear or not wear a mask remains a political flashpoint in America.
Mr Gohmert was tested Wednesday at the White House because he was supposed to accompany Mr Trump on a visit to Texas.
"So I'm asymptomatic, I don't have any of the symptoms that are listed as part of COVID-19, but apparently I have the Wuhan virus," Mr Gohmert said in a video, using a term that angers China.
Mr Gohmert said he wore a mask during Tuesday's hearing with Mr Barr.
But he took it off a few times and was seen walking and talking with Mr Barr before the hearing.
"Wear a damn mask," said Democratic representative Jennifer Wexton from Virginia.
"I don't know who needs to hear this, but if you're a member of Congress who refuses to wear a mask on Capitol Hill, you're not only putting your colleagues at risk - you're endangering the staff who works here, including many of my constituents," she said.
