Coronavirus has interfered in a big way with efforts to qualify for Colorado’s primaries, from a candidate who says he has tested positive for COVID-19 to new hurdles facing others ahead of a Tuesday petition deadline.

Colorado House District 7 candidate Terrence “Big T” Hughes said he contracted the respiratory infection caused by the coronavirus, according to a statement released by his wife.

The pastor also serves as the faith leader for the Colorado Poor People’s Campaign. He’s vying for the nomination for Democratic Rep. James Coleman’s seat to represent northeast Denver. He was hospitalized for pneumonia before he was tested for the virus.

“For those who were around me or my wife in the last week, please take extra care of yourselves and if you have symptoms, do not take it lightly,” Hughes wrote in his statement. “Continue to practice good hygiene and stay away from large crowds. Continue to love and keep our most vulnerable in your thoughts and prayers.”

The announcement Sunday on Facebook comes amid rising concerns among candidates who are collecting petition signatures. While some are taking both the assembly and petition routes to make the ballot, others have had to make tough decisions about whether to continue their campaigns.

Hughes’ candidacy will go through the assembly process — based on accommodations as he remains hospitalized — but his campaign says it’s suspended signature gathering. Simon Maghakyan, a Democrat running for the same seat, made a similar decision.

On Saturday, Colorado lawmakers passed a bill that would give county political parties flexibility in their assemblies to meet public health concerns.

Candidates who opted for the petition route have faced unexpected difficulties.

“Colorado statutes couldn’t have foreseen the impacts of a global pandemic,” said Michelle Ferrigno Warren, a U.S. Senate candidate who suspended signature gathering on Saturday due to public health concerns. She will turn in petitions Tuesday but doesn’t know if she has enough.

U.S. Senate candidate Diana Bray contacted her state legislators to discuss an amendment in the bill designed to help Bray and other candidates by giving them an additional two weeks to collect the signatures they need. To collect signatures during a global pandemic would be, in her words, insanity. The amendment didn’t make the final bill.

“To me, it was just a no-brainer that we stop collecting signatures, even if it means we don’t meet the threshold,” Bray said in an interview Monday, adding that she does not have the 10,500 signatures needed to make the ballot.

Unless candidates for U.S. Senate and an array of other offices drop off petitions meeting the signature thresholds for the posts they’re seeking at the Secretary of State’s Office, their candidacies likely will come to a quiet end.

“It is absolutely unacceptable that in the midst of this pandemic, we have a political battle impeding the public health,” wrote Lorena Garcia, another Democratic U.S Senate candidate, on Twitter.

Eddie Soto, who runs a company that collects petition signatures, decried the legislature’s decision, saying his job became almost impossible after the governor’s emergency declaration last week. Some of his best canvassers refused to go out. People wouldn’t answer doors or touch offered pens. Normally welcoming property owners wouldn’t allow canvassers near their entrances.

“It’s been horrendously difficult and honestly dangerous,” Soto said.

That became especially problematic, he added, because at least a third of signatures are typically collected in the last week before a deadline.

It’s unlikely that anything can or will be done. Election dates and deadlines are written into state law and lawmakers opted not to change them before shutting down Saturday.

Former Gov. John Hickenlooper turned in his signatures Feb. 19, before the spread of coronavirus and the state of emergency drastically hampered signature-gathering efforts. His signatures were deemed valid by the Secretary of State’s Office on Monday, according to his campaign.

For those participating in assemblies, the new law allows county parties to take remote voting or reschedule them.

The bill did not become law before several counties held their assemblies, including in Park County where Democrats gathered on Saturday in Fairplay. Some county assemblies had lower turnout than usual.

“We actually had a fantastic turnout,” said Louise Peterson, chair of the Park County Democrats. She said a half-dozen candidates stopped by, along with 37 delegates. “We had more people wanting to be delegates than we had spots for, which was thrilling.”