In a video posted on Twitter, Biden told Americans that he is “fine” and that his symptoms remain mild.
“I guess you’ve heard, I tested positive for Covid this morning. But I’ve been given a double shot, a double boost. The symptoms are mild and I really appreciate your inquiries and concerns. But I’m doing great, doing a lot of work. We’ll keep doing it, and in the meantime, thank you for your concern and keep the faith. It’s going to be okay,” Biden, who unmasked while standing outside on Truman’s balcony, said in the 20-second video from The White. House says he was filmed by a masked and socially distanced videographer.
The mild symptoms and diagnostic protocol for Biden, a 79-year-old with a double impulse and high risk of serious illness, will mean isolation and “work and rest” at the White House residence for the rest of of the day, according to a senior administration official. This is the first time Biden has tested positive for Covid-19 and the last time he tested negative was Tuesday, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Biden has called several people in the hours since his diagnosis. He wrote on Twitter late Thursday that he is “doing great” after testing positive and said he called politicians in Pennsylvania to express his regret at having to cancel a scheduled trip to the commonwealth. The tweet was accompanied by an image of the president smiling at a desk, without a mask, in the White House residence.
In a memo to staff obtained by CNN, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Biden will work by phone and video conference for the next few days after the positive result.
“I have already spoken with him several times this morning about a number of matters, and he is focused on our pending business,” Klain wrote Thursday.
Day Zero
Biden tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday morning and has started taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid, which is available through emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 in people aged 12 and over who have a high level. risk of serious illness. It requires a medical prescription.
“In accordance with (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, he will self-isolate at the White House and continue to perform all of his duties fully during this time,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement. .
Thursday marks “day 0” of the president’s Covid-19 timeline, meaning he will be in isolation until at least next Tuesday according to CDC guidelines.
The president’s symptoms include “rhinorrhea (or ‘runny nose’) and fatigue, with an occasional dry cough, which began last evening,” according to a letter from the president’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor. Biden did not have a fever Thursday morning, White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told CNN.
Jha later told reporters that Biden’s oxygen levels were “normal” as of Thursday morning and that Biden’s Covid-19 virus sample has been sent to a lab to identify the specific variant with which is infected. Results are expected in “less than a week.”
Biden first tested positive for Covid-19 in an antigen test Thursday morning as part of routine screening, and the positive result was later confirmed by a PCR test, his doctor said.
O’Connor also noted that the president met the FDA’s criteria for use of the antiviral Paxlovid, adding, “I anticipate that he will respond favorably, as most patients with maximum protection do.”
Because of his age, Biden is at greater risk for a more severe case of Covid-19, although the CDC says older adults who are fully vaccinated and boosted significantly reduce their risk of hospitalization and death .
Jha said Thursday that Biden has the “full set of protections” to deal with Covid-19 in his advanced age.
“The bottom line is how much immunity he has from the vaccines, given that he started on treatments right away… I think all of these things reduce his risk of serious illness very dramatically,” Jha told Jeff Zeleny of CNN during the White. Press conference at home. “And that’s really the goal here, is to prevent serious disease, to keep that risk as low as possible. I think he’s got that full set of protections.”
Biden received his first two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine before his inauguration in January 2021, his first booster in September and his second booster on March 30.
Staff are taking steps to adapt, Harris and the first lady are maintaining their previous schedules
Vice President Kamala Harris and First Lady Jill Biden tested negative on Thursday.
Jean-Pierre indicated that the West Wing will continue to practice its current protocols, but that White House residential staff will take steps to create a “very minimal footprint” to avoid infecting others.
The number of aides working at the White House residence will be reduced to the “disputable minimum” in light of Biden’s positive Covid-19 diagnosis, an official told CNN.
And a mid-level aide in the West Wing who works closely with Biden and was on his recent trip to the Middle East also tested positive for Covid-19, according to two familiar sources. The person is not considered a close contact of the president and tested positive earlier this week.
Harris is expected to maintain his normal schedule while Biden is self-isolating. The senior administration official said there is no plan or need to transfer executive powers to Harris, as was done last November for 85 minutes when Biden was under anesthesia for a routine colonoscopy.
Harris has been identified as a close Biden contact, a White House official told CNN. Harris last saw Biden on Tuesday and tested negative on Thursday. She is a close contact, an additional aide says, because they spent more than 15 minutes together while being briefed on the presidential daily briefing. The White House official added that Harris will follow CDC guidelines for those who are vaccinated, including wearing an appropriate mask while around people for 10 days from the date of the last close contact
The first lady and the vice president said they both spoke with the president Thursday after the diagnosis.
Jill Biden told reporters in Detroit earlier Thursday that she had spoken with the president and that “it’s fine. It feels good.”
The first lady, her spokesman Michael LaRosa told CNN, will maintain her original schedule Thursday, which includes a stop in Georgia before heading to Wilmington, Delaware. It also has a double boost, LaRosa said.
And on Thursday afternoon, Harris said at an event in North Carolina that the president “is in good spirits.”
“He works from the White House residence and when he spoke he was very happy that we were all together today,” she told her audience, adding that Biden told her to “get everybody out.”
Upcoming presidential trips have been canceled
A White House official told CNN that Biden’s scheduled trip to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, later Thursday for a speech on crime prevention has been canceled. A DNC fundraiser that Biden was scheduled to headline Thursday night has been postponed, officials said.
It is yet to be determined whether the event will be rescheduled or whether donors will be asked to make their pledged contributions.
Biden was also scheduled to travel to Orlando and Tampa, Fla., on Monday, but is now expected to be in isolation.
Biden has increased his engagement with the public over the past year as the White House has shifted its approach to the pandemic. On Wednesday, Biden traveled to Somerset, Mass., for an event on executive climate action, where he was seen shaking hands and waving to attendees in the outdoor crowd.
The president’s positive diagnosis comes less than a week after a shift through the Middle East, where he held meetings with world leaders in Israel and Saudi Arabia. While abroad, Biden was seen shaking hands, pumping fists and hugging other leaders.
The White House is currently working on contact tracing for those who may have been close contacts of Biden, according to an official, since his positive Covid test. They plan to brief close contacts on Thursday, including members of Congress and the press.
At least one member of Congress who was a close contact after seeing Biden in Massachusetts received a contact follow-up call from the White House on Thursday.
The White House contacted the lawmaker’s office late Thursday, according to a source familiar with the matter, and advised the congressman to follow the CDC’s recommendations for what a person should do when they are determined to be a close contact
One of the recommendations, for example, for someone who is fully vaccinated and has been a close contact is to wear an appropriate mask while around other people for 10 days from the date of the last close contact.
The White House prepared for this moment
White House officials have been preparing for months for what many saw as the inevitability of Biden coming down with Covid.
A wave of cases, including among Harris, White House staff and members of Congress, has swept Washington over the spring and summer. And as more and more of his top officials and family members contracted Covid, officials came to believe it was possible for the president himself to get sick, even as they took steps to protect him from the virus.
Klain, in his Thursday memo to staff, wrote that White House officials “have said for some time that there was a substantial possibility that the president, like anyone else, could have Covid, and we have prepared for to that possibility. We are now executing our plan so that the President can continue to work smoothly from the Residence.”
Biden last underwent an annual physical in November at Walter Reed National Medical Center. O’Connor wrote in a memorandum at the time that the president remained “fit for duty and fully performing all of his responsibilities without waivers or accommodations.”
Officials…