Mayor Adams tests positive for COVID

Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, tested positive for the coronavirus Sunday, his 100th day in office, the mayor’s office announced.

Adams has been focused on reopening the city after cases rose during the omicron surge over the winter. Cases recently started to rise again, fueled by the BA.2 variant.

The mayor, 61, woke up with a raspy voice Sunday and tested negative on a rapid test before testing positive on a PCR test, said Fabien Levy, a spokesman for the mayor. Adams had no other symptoms and is isolating and canceling the rest of his public events for the week, Levy said.

The mayor is fully vaccinated, Levy said, and has had one booster shot.

Adams, who said last week that he takes an at-home rapid test daily, had visited Albany, the state capital, on Saturday for a meeting with lawmakers. He has also been holding a series of interviews to promote his first 100 days in office.

“He is also going to immediately begin taking the antiviral medications offered for free to New York City residents and encourages all New Yorkers eligible for these medications to take them as well,” Levy said in a statement. He said Adams’ doctor said he qualified for the medications and recommended them.

It is difficult to know exactly how or when someone was exposed to and infected with the virus. Adams attended the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington last weekend, after which dozens of attendees have tested positive.

Adams has worn a mask at some recent events, but even as cases rose in the city, he has not frequently worn a mask at others, including after he attended the Gridiron dinner and many other attendees said they had tested positive.

He wrote a book about how he found out he had Type 2 diabetes in 2016 and then lost 30 pounds and said he reversed his diabetes by changing his diet. He speaks often about his mostly vegan diet, meditation and his fitness routine. Diabetes can add to the risk of getting serious illness from COVID partly because diabetes impairs the immune system.

In an interview Wednesday at City Hall, Adams said he had never tested positive for the virus before despite keeping a busy public schedule over the last two years.

“I’ve never had a positive diagnosis,” Adams said. “I’ve felt good, and I haven’t felt the symptoms, and I am around people all the time — even in the heart of COVID. I was at ground zero. For whatever reason, I think it’s a combination of my eating, lifestyle and some luck maybe involved, but no, I never had it.”