WASHINGTON — President Biden examined constructive on Thursday for the coronavirus, elevating well being issues for the 79-year-old president and underscoring how the virus stays a persistent menace in a rustic attempting to place the pandemic previously.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White Home press secretary, mentioned in an announcement that Mr. Biden had “examined constructive for Covid-19. He’s totally vaccinated and twice boosted and experiencing very delicate signs.”
The president is receiving Paxlovid, an antiviral drug used to reduce the severity of Covid-19, Ms. Jean-Pierre mentioned. He’ll isolate on the White Home however “proceed to hold out all of his duties totally throughout that point,” she mentioned.
Kevin O’Connor, the president’s doctor, mentioned in a letter launched by the White Home that Mr. Biden was experiencing fatigue, a runny nostril and an occasional dry cough.
“I anticipate that he’ll reply favorably, as most maximally protected sufferers do,” Dr. O’Connor wrote within the letter.
The president was scheduled to fly to Pennsylvania on Thursday for a speech about gun violence after which to journey to his house in Wilmington, Del., the place he was anticipated to remain for the weekend. Chris Meagher, a White Home spokesman, mentioned the Pennsylvania journey had been canceled.
Jill Biden, the primary woman, examined adverse this morning, based on Michael LaRosa, her spokesman.
Mr. Biden’s constructive check got here amid a flurry of virus instances because the nation grapples with new subvariants that docs say are extremely contagious and may extra simply evade the protections supplied by coronavirus vaccinations.
Consultant Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the chairman of the Home committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, introduced on Tuesday that he had examined constructive for the coronavirus and wouldn’t seem in individual at what might be the panel’s final listening to this summer time.
In Might, Xavier Becerra, the secretary of well being and human providers, examined constructive for the virus, and the White Home introduced that Ashley Biden, Mr. Biden’s daughter, had examined constructive as effectively. Neither was thought-about an in depth contact of the president’s.
Various members of Congress have additionally reported virus instances in latest weeks. And members of Mr. Biden’s interior circle have examined constructive in latest months, together with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Vice President Kamala Harris and Jen O’Malley Dillon, his deputy chief of workers.
At the same time as administration officers and lawmakers in Washington reported infections, the president has continued to journey and seem at occasions, adhering to what his advisers mentioned was steering laid out by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and masks steering issued by the District of Columbia.
In her assertion, Ms. Jean-Pierre mentioned officers would inform any members of Congress, journalists or others who can be thought-about shut contacts of the president throughout a visit to Massachusetts on Wednesday.
“In keeping with White Home protocol for constructive Covid instances, which works above and past C.D.C. steering, he’ll proceed to work in isolation till he exams adverse,” Ms. Jean-Pierre mentioned within the assertion. “As soon as he exams adverse, he’ll return to in-person work.”
Mr. Biden is totally vaccinated, has acquired two booster photographs and is often examined, officers mentioned. The president’s final virus check was on Tuesday, when he had a adverse end result, officers mentioned on Thursday.
