Chris McKenna

cmckenna@th-record.com

State Sen. James Skoufis is recovering at home from the coronavirus after starting to feel symptoms Tuesday night and getting positive test results for the illness on Friday, his spokeswoman announced.

Skoufis, a first-term Democrat who represents about half of Orange County and two towns each in Ulster and Rockland counties, has isolated himself at home in Cornwall since falling ill and has been feeling worse symptoms since then, spokeswoman Jess Gulotta said. Skoufis and his wife, Hillary, urged constituents to continue treating the outbreak with seriousness and caution.

Skoufis and his staff had distributed masks and gloves to health care workers, police officers and other essential workers at his Newburgh office on Monday, before he started feeling symptoms. He was wearing a mask at the time and didn't pack the masks and gloves in the bags in which they were distributed, Gulotta said.

Skoufis is the third state lawmaker representing parts of Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties to catch the coronavirus. State Sen. James Seward, R-Milford, and Assemblyman Brian Miller, R-New Hartford, both have suffered bouts of COVID-19 and were hospitalized.