California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been hospitalized in San Francisco to get treatment for shingles, her office said Thursday.
The chamber’s oldest sitting member told The Post she hoped “to return to the Senate later this month.”
“I was diagnosed over the February recess with a case of shingles. I have been hospitalized and am receiving treatment in San Francisco and expect to make a full recovery,” Feinstein, 89, said in a statement through her spokesman.
Shingles is a virus that, although not life-threatening, causes painful, blistery rashes to develop on the side of the face or body and can require antiviral medications to treat, according to the CDC. The rashes can take two to four weeks to fully clear. Other symptoms include fever, headache, chills and upset stomach.
Feinstein’s office did not say where she’s being treated.
The veteran Democrat has been in California since late February, when she began feeling unwell, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. In that time, she’s missed 12 votes and two committee hearings.
On Feb. 14, Feinstein announced she will not run for reelection in 2024 after holding her seat for more than 30 years since she was first elected in 1992 as the first female senator from California.
Three California Democratic House members — Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee — have launched campaigns to replace Feinstein.
Feinstein previously served as the first female mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988.
According to The Chronicle, she sits on four Senate committees that’ve held 12 public and six closed hearings so far this year. She has attended nine of the 18 hearings.
Two of the hearings she missed were due to conflicting schedules with other committee meetings or briefings, her spokesman told the newspaper.
Feinstein missed two votes on the Senate floor prior to getting sick.
Since her shingles diagnosis, her absence at a dozen votes included two to confirm a federal judge for the Northern District of California.