Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential hopeful, businessman and media personality, is recovering in an Atlanta-area hospital after being diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease earlier this week.
His team announced he had contracted the respiratory illness in a statement on Thursday.
“There is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus,” they wrote.
However Cain, 74, was at President Donald Trump’s June 20 rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where many in the crowds were seen not wearing face masks or practicing social distancing.
Other attendees at the event later tested positive for the virus.
Cain has seemingly disdained the wearing of face masks, despite health officials’ recommendations. He shared a tweet earlier this week that people who wouldn’t wear them were “FED UP.”
His team wrote on Twitter on Thursday that he tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday and, by Wednesday, he “had developed symptoms serious enough that he required hospitalization.”
According to a post on Cain’s website from friend Dan Calabrese, “he was having trouble breathing.”
“I realize people will speculate about the Tulsa rally, but Herman did a lot of traveling the past week,” Calabrese wrote. “I don’t think there’s any way to trace this to the one specific contact that caused him to be infected. We’ll never know.”
By Thursday, Cain was “resting comfortably” in the Atlanta hospital and “did not require a respirator,” his team said on Twitter. He remained alert and awake.
“With God’s help, we are confident he will make a quick and complete recovery,” they wrote, noting he had previously survived a cancer diagnosis.