Bruce Blakeman has "cold-like" symptoms after testing positive for COVID-19

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend and was isolating at home on Monday with "mild" symptoms, a county spokesman confirmed.

“The County Executive tested positive for COVID-19 this weekend, and is experiencing mild cold-like symptoms,” Nassau spokesman Chris Boyle said in a statement. “He is currently working from home, and expects to resume his busy in-person schedule later this week.”

Blakeman, a Republican, missed Monday's funeral services in Oyster Bay for Joseph Mondello, a former state and Nassau County GOP chairman and former U.S. Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, Boyle said.

Blakeman is vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19.

In April 2021, Blakeman contracted the coronavirus during his campaign for county executive. 

"But before I had the chance to get the vaccine, I caught it," Blakeman told Newsday in April 2021. "Whenever I get the chance, I’ll get the vaccine."

He received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and in December, a booster shot from Pfizer.

Blakeman, 66, of Atlantic Beach, has encouraged residents to get vaccinated.

But in the weeks after his inauguration in January, Blakeman became a high-profile backer of a GOP-driven campaign against COVID-19 mandates.

Earlier this year, as the omicron variant spiked, Blakeman denounced Gov. Kathy Hochul's indoor mask mandate, and called for an end to masking in schools.

Hochul, a Democrat, and numerous health experts argued masks were effective in helping stem the spread of the coronavirus, particularly among the unvaccinated.

Blakeman also has criticized mandatory immunization policies for health care employees.

Blakeman has tried to cultivate the idea that "Nassau is normal again," as he put it at his Jan. 3 inauguration.

On July 30, Blakeman's office touted attendance of 27,000 people at a "Nassau is Back" concert at Eisenhower Park headlined by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, "to celebrate Nassau’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic."

Blakeman declined a request for an interview on Monday.