President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing “mild symptoms” including “general malaise” from the infection, the White House said.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden will fly to his home in Delaware, where he will “self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.” The news had first been shared by Unidos US President and CEO Janet Murguía, who told guests at the group’s convention in Las Vegas that president had sent his regrets and could not appear because he tested positive for the virus.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, said in a note that Biden “presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorhea (runny nose) and non-productive cough, with general malaise.” After the positive COVID-19 test, Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and has taken his first dose, O’Connor said.
Biden was slated to speak at the Unidos event in Las Vegas Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to rally Hispanic voters ahead of the November election. Instead, he departed for the airport to fly to Delaware, where he had already been planning to spend a long weekend at his home in Rehoboth Beach.
President Biden is vaccinated, boosted, and he is experiencing mild symptoms following a positive COVID-19 test.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 17, 2024
He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.
A note from @POTUS' Doctor:…
Biden gingerly boarded Air Force One and told reporters traveling with him, “I feel good.” The president was not wearing a mask as he walked onto Air Force One.
The president had previously been at the Original Lindo Michoacan restaurant in Las Vegas, where he was greeting diners and sat for an interview with Univision.
For more on COVID-19:
- Will FLiRT COVID variants bring another summer surge? What to know about symptoms and potential for spread
- COVID can seriously damage your vision, even if you didn’t have symptoms, new study says. Experts say to watch for these signs
- How COVID exposed the inequality in our health care system: ‘Now is the time of reckoning’
- COVID can cause new health problems to appear years after infection, according to a study of more than 130,000 patients
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