According to a statement on Saturday, the famous civil rights leader and two-term presidential candidate Reverend Jesse Jackson and his wife were hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19.
79-year-old Jesse Jackson was vaccinated against the virus and received the first dose at a public event in January because he urged others to get vaccinated as soon as possible. He and his 77-year-old wife are receiving treatment at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
“Doctors are currently monitoring the conditions of both,” Jesse Jackson’s non-profit organization Rainbow/PUSH Coalition said in a statement.
The statement said: “There are currently no further updates.” “We will provide updates as they become available.”
As a disciple of Pastor Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson played a key role in guiding the modern civil rights movement on many issues including voting rights.
Despite being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Jackson is still active and has been advocating for COVID-19 vaccination for blacks, who lag behind whites in the vaccination campaign in the United States. Earlier this month, he was arrested outside the U.S. Capitol during a demonstration asking Congress to end the obstruction of the bill in support of voting rights.
© 2021 Canadian Press
