WASHINGTON — President Biden tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, raising concerns about the 79-year-old president’s health and highlighting how the virus remains a persistent, if muted, threat in a country trying to put the pandemic behind it.
Karin Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said in a statement that Mr. Biden had “tested positive for Covid-19. He is fully vaccinated and twice boosted and is experiencing very mild symptoms.”
During that time, the president will “continue to fully fulfill his duties,” she said.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, said in a letter released by the White House on Thursday morning that Mr. Biden had been feeling tired, had a runny nose and an occasional dry cough, and that his symptoms had begun on Wednesday evening. The president is receiving Paxlovid, an antiviral drug used to minimize the severity of Covid-19.
Officials said Mr. Biden would self-isolate at the White House residence for at least five days, then resume normal activities if he tests negative. If his test continues to be positive, he will remain in isolation until the test comes back negative.
“I predict that he will respond favorably, as most maximally protected patients do,” Dr. O’Connor wrote in the letter. Ms. Jean-Pierre told reporters that Dr. O’Connor will not answer questions directly, as have previous presidential doctors, but will issue written statements about Mr. Biden’s condition each day while the president is in isolation.
In a short video posted on Twitter, Mr Biden thanked people for their concern and said he was “doing well, he’s done a lot of work”. In the video, Mr. Biden is shown standing near a balcony overlooking the South Lawn of the White House, wearing a suit but no tie.
“Keep the faith,” Mr. Biden says in the video. “Everything will be fine.”
The president’s diagnosis represents a moment his aides have spent years preparing for.
As a candidate in 2020, Mr. Biden took extraordinary measures to avoid getting sick, holding “drive-in rallies” and avoiding the kind of in-person events that were hallmarks of campaign life.
As president, Mr. Biden remained highly isolated during his first months in office as the virus spread across the country. The number of employees he interacts with is limited. Members of the news media and others were tested regularly. Mr. Biden and his staff wore masks at all times.
More recently, however, as the number of people vaccinated has increased and as Americans have sought a return to normal life, the president has largely resumed his regular activities. Last week he returned from a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, where he shook hands and hugged many world leaders.
At home, Mr. Biden rarely wears a mask and has returned to hosting large events in the East Room and elsewhere in the White House.
On Thursday, the president’s top Covid official said there was little reason to expect Mr Biden would experience anything other than mild symptoms.
“Because the president is fully vaccinated, the doubled risk of serious illness is dramatically lower,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s co-ordinator of the Covid response. “He is also being treated with a very powerful antiviral and this further reduces the risk of serious illness. It’s a reminder of why we’re all working so hard to make sure every American has the same level of protection.
Dr. Jha said Mr. Biden has stopped taking his usual medications, including a blood thinner and a cholesterol-lowering pill, for the five days he will be on Paxlovid, as recommended by his doctor.
Mr. Biden is the second president to be infected with the coronavirus. In October 2020, President Donald J. Trump tested positive at the White House and was airlifted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Mr. Trump and his aides initially downplayed his symptoms, but reporting later revealed that Mr. Trump’s blood oxygen levels had dropped sharply and that aides were worried he would need to be put on a ventilator.
Mr Trump has been given monoclonal antibodies and an intravenous drug called Remdisivir, as well as steroids to fight inflammation in his lungs. He stayed in the hospital for three nights.
Updated
July 21, 2022, 6:04 PM ET
Mr. Biden’s positive test came amid a wave of cases as the nation grapples with new versions of the virus that doctors say are highly contagious and can more easily evade protections provided by coronavirus vaccinations.
In just eight weeks, the Omicron sub-variant known as BA. 5 has gone from a blip in the number of cases in the United States to the dominant version of the coronavirus in the country and now accounts for more than three-quarters of new cases. Perhaps the most passable subvariant yet, BA. 5 is leading to an increase in positive tests, hospitalizations and ICU admissions across the country.
As of Wednesday, an average of about 127,700 known coronavirus cases and 426 deaths were reported each day in the United States, according to a New York Times database, a significant increase since early July.
“We must not let this disrupt our lives. But we cannot deny that this is a reality that we have to deal with,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Mr. Biden’s chief medical adviser on the pandemic, said recently at a White House briefing.
Many Americans have turned their attention away from the pandemic, and many health officials have become hesitant to sound the alarm. Much of the country has lifted shutdowns and mask-wearing requirements despite current recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that people continue to take precautions in most parts of the country.
Mr Biden’s coronavirus infection is a stark illustration that Covid vaccines, as powerful as they are, are far from the bulletproof shield scientists once hoped for.
The president received multiple doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and his last injection, a second booster, was on March 30. But even booster doses offer little protection against infection, especially with the latest versions of the virus. What little protection they offer wears off sharply and quickly, several studies show.
Mr Biden and Americans his age and older have made up increasing shares of those dying from Covid in recent months. The virus takes advantage of weakened immunity caused by long delays since older people have received their previous vaccinations.
As of early June, four times as many Americans ages 75 to 84 were dying each week from the virus than people two decades younger, according to CDC data
It was not clear exactly how Mr. Biden became infected, and White House officials declined to offer details about who he had been in contact with in recent days. It is difficult to determine exactly how or when someone was exposed to and contracted the virus.
Officials said the president’s previous virus test was on Tuesday, when he came back negative. Ms. Jean-Pierre and Mr. Jha said the president was “regularly” tested, but declined to say how often or explain why he was not tested every day.
Mr Jha said: “I really don’t think there’s much advantage to testing every day.”
Mr. Biden had a series of close calls with the coronavirus before contracting it. In March, he attended a gala event with Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin, who left the event after testing positive. Officials said at the time that during the gala, Mr. Biden and Mr. Martin were not in close contact, which the CDC defines as being within 6 feet of someone for at least 15 minutes in a 24-day period. o’clock.
Rep. Benny Thompson of Mississippi, the chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, announced Tuesday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus and will not appear in person at what could be the panel’s final hearing this summer.
The president and other Democratic lawmakers have called on congressional Republicans to pass emergency coronavirus funds to ensure the United States can buy new vaccines and therapeutics as the pandemic continues.
That demand, for as much as $22.5 billion to pay for more vaccines, tests, therapies and research, remains stalled, with lawmakers unable to agree on how much to spend and how to pay for them. Republicans have demanded that any additional coronavirus aid be paid for by redirecting money already approved by Congress.
The president was scheduled to fly to Pennsylvania on Thursday for a speech on gun violence and then travel to his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where he is expected to stay for the weekend. White House officials said both trips had been canceled.
Jill Biden, the first lady who also received two boosters, tested negative Thursday morning, according to Michael LaRosa, her spokesman. Vice President Kamala Harris, who was last with the president on Tuesday, has tested negative, according to the White House.
Reporting was contributed by Noah Weiland, Katie Rogers, Zolan Cano-Youngs and Emily Cochrane in Washington and Adeel Hasan, Benjamin Mueller and Apoorva Mandavili in New York.
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