President Joe Biden tests positive for Covid
US President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid while on a campaign trip to Las Vegas on Wednesday and is experiencing mild symptoms, the White House said.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Mr 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 UnidosUS president and CEO Janet Murguia, who told guests at the Latino civil rights group’s convention in Las Vegas that Mr Biden 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 Mr Biden “presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorhea (runny nose) and non-productive cough, with general malaise”.
After the positive Covid test, Mr Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and has taken his first dose, Dr O’Connor added.
As he boarded Air Force One, Mr Biden told reporters traveling with him: “I feel good.”
Mr Biden was due to speak at the Unidos event in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to rally Hispanic voters ahead of the November election.
The president had previously been at the Original Lindo Michoacan restaurant in Las Vegas, where he was greeting diners and was scheduled to have an interview with Univision.
It comes as the Mr Biden faces growing calls to withdraw from the presidential race over concerns about his mental acuity.
ABC News reported that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told the President in a meeting on Saturday it would be better for the country and the Democratic Party if he ended his re-election campaign.
A poor debate performance in June was followed by a shaky Nato summit last week, where Mr Biden made a series of blunders, referring to Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump” and Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin”.
Earlier this month, the White House denied rumours that he has Parkinson’s, after reports emerged that an expert of the disease had visited the President’s doctor this year.
Mr Biden has been vaccinated and is current on his recommended annual booster dose for Covid.
The vaccines have proven highly effective at limiting serious illness and death from the virus, which killed more than 1 million people in the US since the pandemic began in 2020.
Paxlovid has been proven to curtail the chances of serious illness and death from Covid when prescribed in the early days of an infection, but has also been associated with rebound infections, where the virus comes back a few days after clearing up.
Mr Biden last tested positive for Covid twice in the summer of 2022, when he had a primary case and a rebound case of the virus.
US health officials have reported recent upticks in emergency room visits and hospitalisations from Covid.
There has also been a pronounced increase in positive test results in much of the country — particularly the south west.
This breaking story is being updated
