SAN ANTONIO — Just a few hours after tweeting that he was planning to self-quarantine as a precuationary measure after learning he was potentially "exposed" to the novel coronavirus over the weekend, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said he has tested negative for the virus.
Earlier on Tuesday evening, the Alamo City mayor said he learned he briefly interacted with someone on Saturday who later tested positive for COVID-19, hence his decision to self-quarantine at home while monitoring for symptoms.
He took his test sometime during the day Tuesday.
The news of Nirenberg's decision to quaranted was announced virtually at the same time as the day's regular coronavirus response briefing with local leaders – which the mayor has led since the pandemic began – was getting underway.
While the mayor didn't specify on his health Tuesday evening, he went on to tweet that he wore a mask at the time of the "brief" Saturday interaction.
Meanwhile, at Tuesday's briefing, Assistant City Manager Colleen Bridger emphasized that anyone who may have interacted with Nirenberg in the past few days "is not at an elevated risk."
Nirenberg is the second high-ranking San Antonio-area official to self-quarantine in the past week, following a similar situation with Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. It was announced Saturday morning that Wolff's COVID-19 test came back negative.
A staunch advocate for taking precautionary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Bexar County since the pandemic began, Nirenberg's decision to self-quarantine comes amid a period of renewed virus surge across the state and country. While Bridger last week stopped short of saying that we're in a second wave, daily cases totals and hospitalization numbers have steadily been on the rise since the start of October.
As of Tuesday evening, at least 68,376 Bexar County residents have tested positive for COVID-19, while 1,285 have died from virus complications.