Texas governor Greg Abbott tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, after weeks spent banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds.

Abbott, a Republican, is fully vaccinated against the virus and is not experiencing symptoms, his office said in a statement. He is taking a monoclonal antibody treatment and isolating in the governor’s mansion.

Spokesperson Mark Miner said: “Governor Abbott is in constant communication with his staff, agency heads and government officials to ensure that state government continues to operate smoothly and efficiently.”

Texas has once again emerged as a hotspot for the coronavirus, with only 314 available intensive care unit beds statewide. Pediatric ICUs are running out of space while children head back to class.

Abbott has restricted cities, counties, school districts and public health authorities from requiring masks or Covid-19 vaccines. And when officials in Texas’s major cities defied his order, the state supreme court barred their local mask mandates – at least temporarily.

The governor has kept a busy social calendar ahead of next year’s primary election, when he faces Republican challengers even further to his right. He recently took heat for literally fiddling around, seemingly jamming at a political event as the public health crisis worsened.

On Monday – less than 24 hours before testing positive for Covid-19 – he tweeted photos of himself waving to a room packed with seniors, almost no masks in sight.

“Another standing room only event in Collin county tonight,” Abbott captioned the images. “Thank y’all for the enthusiastic reception.”

Abbott posted another series of photos with Texas musician Jimmie Vaughan on Tuesday afternoon, shortly before his diagnosis was announced. “Everyone that the governor has been in close contact with today has been notified,” Miner said.

The Texas Democratic party chair, Gilberto Hinojosa, said in a statement that he wished Abbott well and hoped for his speedy recovery.

“Covid is not a partisan issue,” Hinojosa said. “This is a stark reminder that no one is immune to this surge, especially as the Delta variant continues to spread rapidly among our communities.”