Mayor tests positive for COVID-19

Published 5:51 pm Tuesday, February 16, 2021

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Suffolk Mayor Mike Duman announced via social media that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

Duman, who made the announcement in a Feb. 16 Facebook post, said he would miss the City Council meeting Feb. 17 and that Vice Mayor Leroy Bennett would preside over the meeting.

“I want to inform all that I was tested positive last weekend for COVID-19,” Duman wrote in his Facebook post. “I am home and will follow prescribed protocol.”

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Duman said in his post that he had a few aches and fatigue. Reached by phone a few hours after his Facebook post, Duman said he was feeling a little tired but was otherwise fine and eager to return to the business of the city. He had tested negative for COVID-19 earlier in the week, but got tested again a few days later and got a positive result.

“Right this minute, so far, so good,” Duman said.

In his Facebook post, Duman said that “I will be glad when all this is behind us and we can return to some degree of normalcy. To all … STAY SAFE!”

Duman, as other members of council, has been vocal in recent weeks about getting the city’s health department reopened. He held a Facebook Live chat with residents Feb. 12 and discussed those efforts, along with the city’s new call center and a recent vaccination event at East End Baptist Church.

He said in his Facebook post that he did not expect anything contentious with the council’s agenda for its meeting. Council’s work session starts at 4 p.m. and it will get an update on the Executive Airport and economic development in the city, along with a preview of upcoming bridge projects.

At its 6 p.m. regular session, council is expected to get an update on the COVID-19 vaccine and the city call center. An item to defer water and sewer rate increases through June 30 is on the consent agenda, and there will be a public hearing on a resolution to adopt the Capital Improvements Program and Plan for fiscal years 2021-2022 through 2030-2031.

The full agenda for the meeting at City Hall is online at http://www.suffolkva.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_02172021-2579.