President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 again on Saturday, just over three days after being released from coronavirus isolation, the White House said, in a rare case of “recovery” after treatment with an antiviral. medicine.
White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a letter that Biden “has not experienced a recurrence of symptoms and is doing well.”
In accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Biden will continue to self-isolate for at least five days. The agency says most recoveries remain mild and no serious illness has been reported during the period.
News of Biden’s positive test came just two hours after the White House announced the president would visit Michigan next Tuesday to highlight the passage of a bill to promote high-tech domestic manufacturing. Biden was also scheduled to visit his home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Sunday morning, where First Lady Jill Biden was staying while the president tested positive. Both trips were canceled when Biden returned to self-isolation.
Biden, 79, was treated with the antiviral drug Paxlovid and tested negative for the virus on Tuesday and Wednesday. He was then released to come out of isolation while wearing a mask indoors. His positive tests place him among the minority who have been given the drug to recover from the virus.
Although Biden tested negative, he returned to holding internal events and meetings with White House officials and wearing a mask, in accordance with CDC guidelines. But the president removed his mask during speeches in the building on Thursday and during a meeting with chief executives at the White House complex.
When asked why Biden was violating CDC protocols, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said: “They were social distancing. They were far enough away from each other. So we made it safe for them to be together, to be on that stage.”
Regulators are still studying the prevalence and virulence of rebound cases, but the CDC warned doctors in May that it was observed two to eight days after the initial negative test for the virus.
“The limited information currently available in case reports suggests that people treated with paxlovide who experience a relapse of COVID-19 had mild illness; There are no reports of serious illness,” the agency said at the time.
When Biden was initially released from isolation on Wednesday, O’Connor said the president would “increase the cadence of testing” to detect any possible resurgence of the virus.
White House COVID-19 Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters on Monday that “clinical data suggest that 5 to 8% of people will experience a relapse after treatment with paxlovide.”
Paxlovid has been shown to significantly reduce serious illness and deaths among people most vulnerable to COVID-19. US health officials have urged those who test positive to consult their doctor or pharmacist to see if treatment should be prescribed despite the risk of rebound.
Biden is fully vaccinated, having received two doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office, the first booster in September and an additional dose on March 30.
Although patients who have recovered from previous variants of COVID-19 have a high level of immunity to future reinfections within 90 days, Jaha said that the BA.5 subvariant that Biden was infected with appeared to be more of an “immune crash.”
“We’ve seen a lot of people get reinfected within 90 days,” he said, adding that authorities still don’t have data on how long those who have recovered from the BA.5 strain are protected from reinfection.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
