Joe Biden has tested positive for Covid-19 again, three days after announcing that he was negative and resuming his face-to-face activities at the White House.
The US president’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, said Biden’s case was an example of “rebound” positivity, which sometimes occurs in patients who have taken Pfizer’s Covid-19 antiviral drug.
“The president has not experienced any recurrence of symptoms and remains quite well,” O’Connor said.
The doctor said he saw no reason to “restart treatment” for Biden, but that he would be monitored closely. The 79-year-old would observe “strict isolation procedures”.
The president was scheduled to travel home to Wilmington, Delaware for the weekend. Earlier Saturday, the White House announced the president would go to Hemlock, Michigan, on Tuesday to deliver a speech on the impact of the $280 billion Science and Chip Act, which was passed by Congress on Thursday and has aimed at revitalizing the American semiconductor industry. business Both trips have been cancelled.
Biden was prescribed Paxlovid, which has been recommended for Covid patients in the US who experience mild to moderate symptoms and are at high risk of developing severe disease.
While the drug has been hailed for preventing some of the worst effects of Covid-19 in elderly patients or patients with pre-existing conditions, some have reported cases of Covid “rebounding” two to eight days after testing negative.
Biden, for example, tested negative for the virus on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning before his rebound positive case on Saturday morning, O’Connor said.
While most patients report that their rebound cases have had milder symptoms, others, including Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, say they were actually sicker during the rebound.
During his first round of Paxlovid, Fauci said he felt “really good,” other than fatigue and congestion, but he tested positive again three days after initially testing negative. At that point, he began to feel “very bad” and “much worse” than during his first bout, the doctor recalled at the Foreign Policy Global Health Forum in June.