Rep. Matt Gaetz said Tuesday that he slept in a Walmart parking lot this week amid concerns he may have contracted COVID-19, the potentially deadly novel coronavirus.

Mr. Gaetz, Florida Republican, learned on Monday that he posed for a photograph the previous week with a person later determined to have been carrying the coronavirus.

He subsequently told the Pensacola News Journal that he slept outside of a Walmart that evening while en route to Okaloosa County from Washington, D.C., the newspaper reported.

“I couldn’t stay in a hotel,” Mr. Gaetz told the News Journal. “I slept in a Walmart parking lot somewhere off (Interstate) 85.”

The congressman’s office confirmed to The Washington Times later that Mr. Gaetz indeed slept in the Walmart parking lot while driving back to Florida this week.

Mr. Gaetz learned Monday that he could have caught the coronavirus from an individual he met at the Conservative Political Action Conference, better known as CPAC, on Feb. 27.

He was aboard Air Force One when he was notified that he could have potentially contracted the coronavirus from the CPAC attendee, prompting the congressman to isolate himself in an unoccupied office on the presidential plane during its flight from Florida to D.C., the News Journal reported. He then proceeded to drive solo back to Florida, the report said.

Mr. Gaetz announced the next day that he has tested negative for the coronavirus but will remain under self-quarantine until Thursday afternoon out of an abundance of caution.

“We appreciate the great folks working in the United States and around the world to combat this virus,” Mr. Gaetz said on Twitter.

Mr. Gaetz faced criticism last week amid being accused of mocking the coronavirus outbreak by wearing a gas mask on Capitol Hill as lawmakers voted on an appropriations bill to fund the government’s response to the health crisis.

“I wasn’t making light of the situation,” Mr. Gaetz insisted Tuesday, the News Journal reported. “I only wish I had worn the gas mask at CPAC,” he said.

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