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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Partner Test Positive for COVID-19
Polis and partner Marlon Reis are asymptomatic and isolating at home.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and his partner, Marlon Reis, have both tested positive for COVID-19, the governor announced Saturday evening.
They are both asymptomatic and isolating at home, Polis said in a tweet. "No person or family is immune to this virus," he noted, and he urged Coloradans to take safety measures. He had tested negative earlier in the week after being exposed to someone with COVID.
\u201cThis evening I learned that First Gentleman Marlon Reis and I have tested positive for COVID-19. We are both asymptomatic, feeling well, and will continue to isolate at home.\u201d— Governor Jared Polis (@Governor Jared Polis) 1606616234
Also Saturday, Polis extended four executive orders related to the pandemic, including one that provides a onetime payment to Colorado residents who've collected unemployment benefits because of the crisis, according to The Denver Post. The extended order gives the state more time to get the payments out. COVID cases and hospitalizations "have risen dramatically in Colorado in October and November, setting all-time highs far above the levels seen in the spring," The Washington Post reports.
In 2018, Polis became the first out gay man to be elected governor of any state in the U.S. A Democrat, he was previously a businessman and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Jim McGreevey, elected governor of New Jersey in 2002, came out as gay in 2004 but resigned immediately afterward. Kate Brown, a bisexual woman, advanced from secretary of state to governor of Oregon in 2015 when Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned, as Oregon has no lieutenant governor, and has since been elected in her own right.