Amy Klobuchar reveals her husband is in the hospital on oxygen after coronavirus diagnosis

Amy Klobuchar spoke of her husband’s frightening coronavirus symptoms on Tuesday and revealed he is still in the hospital on oxygen.

The former presidential hopeful appeared via video link on Good Morning America to discuss her husband John Blesser’s condition and reveal that she has not been able to get a test for the virus.

He was hospitalized on Monday after coughing up blood. Klobuchar, in a statement, said he had also been diagnosed with pneumonia.

On Tuesday, she revealed he had no preexisting conditions, is 52 and in good health and that he has no idea where he contracted the virus. 

‘He started to feel sick about 12 days ago or so and the minute he started to feel that he had a cold he sequestered himself in the apartment, but to be safe he did that and that’s where he stayed until he started coughing up blood and then he got the test. 

‘We don’t know how he got it, No one around us got it. Maybe it was a random thing,’ she said. 

Klobuchar had been traveling for 14 days before her husband was diagnosed so had not come into close enough contact with him to be exposed. 

 

Amy Klobuchar spoke of her husband’s frightening coronavirus symptoms on Tuesday and revealed he is still in the hospital on oxygen

Klobuchar's husband John Blesser, pictured with her and their daughter Abigail in February last year, had no preexisting conditions but is now in the hospital

Klobuchar’s husband John Blesser, pictured with her and their daughter Abigail in February last year, had no preexisting conditions but is now in the hospital 

With tests for the virus in such short supply, her doctor advised her she did not need one. She has been quarantining away from her husband since she returned home as a precaution. 

‘Today he is still on oxygen, the reason he was hospitalized was he had pneumonia, he was coughing up blood. 

‘His oxygen levels are dangerously low. He got a test last Wednesday and we didn’t get the results until yesterday, over the weekend we suspected that he had it. 

That’s the story of a lot of people and I think, a lot of Americans have this and worse going on one of the hardest things about this disease is you can’t go and visit your loved ones. As much as I love your show, I would much rather be with him. 

‘All you can do is call and email and text and try to reach the caretakers who are taking care of him – I’ve never even met them – who are taking care of him to try to get updates.

‘This is all Americans. Everyone is going to know someone in their family where this happens.

‘I just want to say, that’s who I am thinking about right now – it’s the reason I am here, in my office, getting the funding that we need for a medical surge and helping people who are out of work.’

Klobuchar also said she did not begrudge not being able to get a test. 

She does not have any symptoms and has not been around her husband for 14 days. 

‘Why would I get a test when other people who are sick can’t get a test?’ she said. 

Klobuchar and her husband last month. She said the hardest thing about the virus was not being able to see him or visit him

Klobuchar and her husband last month. She said the hardest thing about the virus was not being able to see him or visit him 

There are now more than 46,000 cases of coronavirus in the US and 586 people have died. 

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was tested a week ago for coronavirus but continued working at the Capitol because he ‘felt that it was highly unlikely’ he was sick since had no symptoms of the illness.

Paul announced Sunday that he had tested positive for the virus – becoming the first case of COVID-19 in the Senate and raising fears about further transmission of the virus among senators, including some who are in their 70’s and 80’s.

‘Since nearly every member of the U.S. Senate travels by plane across the country multiple times per week and attends lots of large gatherings, I believed my risk factor for exposure to the virus to be similar to that of my colleagues, especially since multiple congressional staffers on the Hill had already tested positive weeks ago,’ Paul said on Monday.

‘For those who want to criticize me for lack of quarantine, realize that if the rules on testing had been followed to a tee, I would never have been tested and would still be walking around the halls of the Capitol.’

He said current federal guidelines would not have called for him to get tested or quarantined.

‘It was my extra precaution, out of concern for my damaged lung, that led me to get tested,’ he said.

Paul had surgery last year to remove part of a lung damaged in a 2017 assault by a neighbor who attacked him over a long-standing landscaping dispute.

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk