AG Keith Ellison tests positive for COVID-19 while abroad

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Wednesday that he tested positive for COVID-19 while visiting family outside the country.

Ellison said he found out he was infected following a mandatory COVID-19 test to board the plane home on Tuesday. He had no symptoms at the time but has since developed mild cold-like symptoms.

The attorney general said he is fully vaccinated and boosted and credits the vaccine for his lack of severe illness.

"I’m very grateful to have been vaccinated and boosted," Ellison said in a statement. "The science is clear: vaccines and booster shots make COVID symptoms mild and manageable for most of us if we do contract the virus. My case is more proof of that."

Ellison said he will work remotely until he is cleared to fly back to the U.S. and urged Minnesotans to get their shots to mitigate the severity of COVID-19 infections.

"The more Minnesotans who are vaccinated, the more we will all get through to the other side of the omicron wave safely," Ellison said. "That’s how we care for each other as Minnesotans and human beings."

Ellison is Minnesota’s third statewide elected official to test positive for COVID-19 in the past few months. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan contracted the virus in October, and Gov. Tim Walz tested positive for COVID-19 in December.