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Law360 (July 21, 2022, 12:43 PM EDT) -- President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID-19 but is only "experiencing very mild symptoms" and will continue performing all his duties, the White House announced Thursday.
In a statement, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced that the positive test occurred Thursday morning and disclosed that the president had begun using Pfizer Inc.'s antiviral pill Paxlovid. In accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Biden will "isolate at the White House and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time," Jean-Pierre said.
"Consistent with White House protocol for positive COVID cases, which goes above and beyond CDC guidance, he will continue to work in isolation until he tests negative. Once he tests negative, he will return to in-person work," the press secretary added.
Biden is fully vaccinated, including with two booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, to protect against the novel coronavirus and its variants. At 79 years old, Biden is nonetheless in a higher-risk category for serious complications of the disease, which has killed more than 1 million Americans.
Administration officials also released a Thursday letter in which White House physician Kevin C. O'Connor wrote that Biden was "currently experiencing mild symptoms, mostly rhinorrhea (or 'runny nose') and fatigue, with an occasional dry cough, which started yesterday evening."
"The president is fully vaccinated and twice-boosted, so I anticipate that he will respond favorably, as most maximally protected patients do. Early use of Paxlovid in this case provides additional protection against severe disease," O'Connor wrote.
In a White House pool report late Thursday morning, an unnamed White House official said that Vice President Kamala Harris tested negative for COVID-19 and was last with the president on Tuesday.
Former President Donald Trump was also infected with the coronavirus while in office; his diagnosis occurred about one month before the 2020 election and before COVID-19 vaccines became available, and he underwent treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
--Editing by Alyssa Miller.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
