Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said that her husband, John Bessler, is recovering at home after being hospitalized for severe symptoms from the coronavirus.
Klobuchar, who dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary race in early March, said Thursday afternoon on Twitter that Bessler "took a good turn, was just released & is now recovering at home!"
"Thanks to those who cared for him & for all front line health care workers," she tweeted.
On Monday, the Minnesota senator revealed in a Medium post that her spouse had been diagnosed with COVID-19 that morning.
"He kept having a temperature and a bad, bad cough and when he started coughing up blood he got a test and a chest X-ray and they checked him into a hospital in Virginia because of a variety of things including very low oxygen levels which haven't really improved," Klobuchar wrote in the blog post.
Klobuchar wrote that Bessler, 52, had pneumonia and was put on oxygen, but did not need a ventilator – a desperately needed piece of medical equipment in coronavirus "hot spots" such as New York.
Klobuchar also noted that her husband began to experience symptoms while he was in Washington, D.C., and she was in Minnesota.
"I wanted to let my colleagues and constituents know that since John and I have been in different places for the last two weeks and I am outside the 14-day period for getting sick, my doctor has advised me to not get a test," she wrote.
That assurance came a day after another senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, tested positive for the virus. Multiple other senators, including Republicans Mitt Romney and Mike Lee of Utah, went into self-quarantine due to their exposure to Paul on Capitol Hill. Both Romney and Lee said they showed no symptoms.
"I love my husband so very much and not being able to be there at the hospital by his side is one of the hardest things about this disease," Klobuchar wrote on Medium.
Klobuchar was part of the Senate's unanimous vote Wednesday night to pass the $2 trillion relief bill aimed at helping businesses and individuals weather the devastating financial impact of the pandemic.
Bessler is a lawyer, author and academic. He and Klobuchar married in 1993.
