“This is really a very, very, very sad day. We come to the floor with nearly 50,000 deaths, a huge number of people impacted and the uncertainty of it all,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in floor remarks early Thursday. Pelosi wore a cream-colored scarf around her face until she spoke and wiped down the podium before and after her remarks.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was the only Democrat to vote against the bill. She said that she couldn't rely on leadership's promises for broader relief in the next package.

"We have no date, we have no commitment on when this Cares 4 is gonna happen,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters after the House passed the bill.

The House was a much different scene Thursday than the Senate, which passed the aid package earlier this week via a voice vote with only a handful of senators and staff in the chamber.

Hundreds of lawmakers — far more than when the House last voted for the $2 trillion CARES Act in late March — spent between four and five hours casting a series of two votes on Thursday. Lawmakers, who returned to Washington to reach a quorum in case any members demand a roll call vote, shuffled in and out of the House in groups of roughly 60, with floor officials disinfecting the chamber in between the two votes.

As the House opened its doors on Thursday morning, normal procedure had changed drastically from the last time lawmakers arrived in town for a vote more than three weeks ago.

Officials in charge of the House floor had taken even more steps to halt the spread of the virus, which has so far infected almost 835,000 Americans and claimed over 42,000 lives. House staffers had placed signs on chairs in the chamber so members would know to sit far enough apart from each other to maintain proper social distancing.

And the House’s attending physician, Brian Monahan, recommended that members and staff wear masks at all times — a warning that many, though not all, have followed. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) openly criticized Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for not wearing a mask during a Wednesday evening meeting of the House Rules Committee.

Jordan and a handful of other Republicans were on the House floor Thursday morning without masks. But Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) along with GOP lawmakers like Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) were seen wearing face coverings around the chamber.

Debate in the House dragged on for hours, pushing back the first votes by more than 90 minutes as hundreds of lawmakers fought for a chance to speak on the floor, even just for 30 seconds. As the first vote finally started, Pelosi stood in the back of the chamber, acting as a traffic cop as she instructed staff and directed members.