Senate Republicans stuck in quarantine as chaos unfolds over coronavirus bill

The fate of a third coronavirus response bill -- a massive amalgam of stimulus checks and other economic aid -- has been only further clouded by the fact that five Republican senators remain stuck in quarantine.

The package was blocked by Senate Democrats late Sunday, leading to fiery condemnations from GOP colleagues. But the math is made even harder for majority Republicans as more and more of their members are forced to the sidelines, unable to vote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has been pushing the legislation in its current form, warned of the new obstacle at hand.

“Coronavirus has now arrived here in the Senate,” McConnell said Sunday evening from the Senate floor. “There are at least five senators in self-quarantine.”

On Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., tested positive for COVID-19, after having spent much of the weekend on Capitol Hill engaged in working lunches and meetings over the stimulus package.

Paul, who became the first member of the Senate known to be infected with coronavirus, has been in quarantine in Kentucky and continuing to work, while staffers in his Washington D.C. office have been working remotely for the past 10 days.

But his diagnosis sent several other top GOP senators into self-quarantine.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said that his physician had instructed him to “immediately self-quarantine and not to vote on the Senate floor," after recently having lunch with Paul.