BATON ROUGE - As rates of coronavirus infection continue to soar in Louisiana, an employee of the State's Department of the Treasury has tested positive for COVID-19. 

According to The Advocate, State Treasurer John Schroder's office confirmed that one of its staffers tested positive for the virus this week, marking the latest known case of infection at the State Capitol building. 

Schroder's spokeswoman Michelle Millhollon said Thursday, "a staff member at Treasury tested positive this week for COVID-19. We are sanitizing our offices and encouraging all staff to wear masks, wash their hands frequently and social distance." 

Schroder, a Republican, has offices in the State Capitol, where lawmakers across the sate are currently gathered for a special legislative session that ends Tuesday.  

The infection comes days after state Senate President Page Cortez confirmed a student worker in the Senate tested positive for the coronavirus, as did the spouses of several staffers. 

Those infections prompted Cortez to urge senators to wear masks. 

As of late, many lawmakers have not been wearing masks or practicing social distancing while at the State Capitol. In fact, a group of more than 20 Republican lawmakers on Thursday posed shoulder-to-shoulder without masks for a photo op as they sought to revoke Edwards' ability to keep restrictions in place to limit the spread of the virus. 

Republican state Rep. Valarie Hodges, of Denham Springs, said recently she missed several days of work because she caught a cough and had family members who tested positive for the virus. She said she tested negative twice. 

Rep. Reggie Bagala, a freshman GOP lawmaker from Cutoff, contracted COVID-19 earlier this spring and died from the virus after being put on a ventilator. Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, also contracted the virus and was hospitalized, but recovered. 

Cortez announced in April he had been infected in March but recovered.